Seductive Shadows
by rgm0005
Summary: He's stranded in a world that no longer needs him. She's alone in a world that no longer wants her. He still dreams of what he once had. Her dreams are of something she's never had. Thus, they are together, for the sake of their fleeting dreams.
1. Chapter 1: Plotmon

Originally, this was supposed to be a One-shot, but, well, it got kind of big for that. So, in the end, I decided to make this a multi-chaptered fic. Hopefully, not too multi-chaptered, though; I still have my other fics that I'm working on.

Also, I'd like to thank Daneel Rush for coming up with (and letting me use) the summary for this story.

**Seductive Shadows**

**Plotmon**

Shit. This was bad. This was really bad.

Takato would have voiced those thoughts aloud, but he didn't have breath to spare as he ran.

In hindsight, entering that portal had been a really bad idea.

It had been months since the departure of Guilmon and the other Digimon and life had gone on. Things were different now, though; the world had learnt of Digimon and they also knew about the ones who'd saved them from the D-Reaper.

After all, they'd done it on television. Naked.

Takato would have flushed if the situation had allowed for it. He'd blushed a lot in the last few months, every time it was brought up. And it was, often.

By girls.

But besides the fame and the publicity and the embarrassment, life had gone on. He still went to school, his home was a bakery, and he still played Digimon with his friends. Granted, it was a little bit different now; everyone in school knew his name and he'd gone from being a face in the crowd to being the most popular kid in school. The bakery was now doing very, very well, benefiting from his fame by an increase in profits; apparently there were even going to be trademarks and stuff on the Guilmon bread. And, of course, his group of friends had increased quite a bit, going from Hirokazu and Kenta to the entire Tamer team.

Life was good. Not perfect; Guilmon would have to come back for it to be perfect. But good.

And then he'd found that gate at Guilmon's shed.

He'd taken it as a good sign, of course. He'd get to see his best friend again! What could be better?

Of course, then he'd been forced to think logically. The Digital World was a dangerous place; he knew that. Without Guilmon there to protect him, the odds of something bad happening were just this side of garmented.

So he was going to call Hypnos. Well, okay, fine. He was going to call all his friends and _then_ he was going to call Hypnos.

Things hadn't quite happened that way.

It was hard to explain what happened next. He was cursing himself for not having a cell phone and was about to leave the shed. More than anything, he was worried about the portal closing before he got back.

And then he'd stopped.

No…he'd been stopped. He remembered that clearly; he was walking and suddenly he couldn't move.

And then he'd heard a voice.

In hindsight, he was cursing himself. A voice with no apparent origin was talking to him. He should _know_ that was a bad sign. Stuff like that never ended well for him. _Never._

So why the hell did he listen to that voice?

"_Tamer…come to me, Tamer. I need you. Help me."_

Someone had been asking for help. Maybe that was it? Maybe he was just a sucker for someone in need?

The fact that it had sounded like a woman hadn't helped at all.

But that still didn't explain it.

Why? Why the hell would he do this?

Why the hell would he walk through the gate without even calling someone?

It may not have been smart, but he would have jumped in if someone was in danger. But he would have at least called someone and told them that he was about to do something stupid. Jenrya and Ruki would kick his ass for it later, no doubt, but if they knew where he was they could at least do something about it. And he wouldn't have to worry his parents- okay, that was a lie. His parents would worry anyway. And rightly so!

But they would have known where he was, at least, right?

And so now he was in the Digital World. Alone. With little to no hope of rescue or backup. And when he got back, if he got back at all, Ruki and Jenrya and his parents and Hypnos and probably some other people he was forgetting were going to make him suffer.

Still, he would have preferred to suffer at the hands of people that cared about him if given a choice between that and his current situation.

Truth be told, he was pretty lucky. The area he'd landed in was pretty barren, lacking tree roots, thick plants, cracked earth, large rocks, sand, deep water, or scattered rubble; things he'd come to expect from the Digital World but which, nonetheless, made it really hard to run for your life. It would have been better if he was in a city area and had buildings to hide in or behind, but it was better than most of the areas he'd been through last time.

That still didn't change the fact that he was running through a level of the Digital World with no cover while being chased by a…what was that?

Takato risked a glance back and realized he didn't recognize the Digimon chasing him. It looked like a Monochromon, but…no, it wasn't a Monochromon. It's 'horn' was more like a _blade_ then a horn. That armor plating was different too.

But it was that blade he was worried about. It was _huge_.

The only reason he was even still alive was because the 'Monochromon' had a hard time suddenly changing directions, a flaw he'd shamelessly exploited. That, and the fact that it was easy to run.

But that didn't change the fact he was getting tired. And as soon as he started slowing down…

"_Help me…I need your help…Tamer…"_

That voice again. Takato was of half a mind to flat-out ignore it, since it had gotten him into this in the first place, but he began running towards where he thought it was coming from anyway.

Mainly because he didn't have any other options. He had to hope he was heading towards something that could help him.

Which was unlikely, since the voice was calling for help.

Unless it was a trap, he realized.

He frowned at that thought. Specifically, at the hope it inspired.

He was hoping that he was running into a trap?

The 'Monochromon' roared, apparently getting tired of this chase.

Takato shifted directions as quickly as he could, figuring that the 'Monochromon' was going to try to rush him.

It wasn't, but it still turned out to be a good move as the spot where he'd been a second ago exploded.

That was Monochromon's Volcano Strike, or something that looked just like it. Then was that actually a 'Monochromon'?

But it was so different. In fact, it wasn't the only thing that was different.

Takato continued looking forward as he ran. He could see the horizon but nothing else. No buildings. No natural features. No Digimon.

It just went on and on, a dead, lifeless land.

What had happened to this place? What had happened to the Digital World?

Takato's eyes widened as a thought hit him.

And…if something had happened to the Digital World…

What had happened to Guilmon?

"_I know the answers…Tamer…I'll tell you…if you help me…"_

Takato's eyes and resolve hardened.

"I'll help you if I can. Just tell me where you are."

He didn't receive a reply. Not in words at least.

Even so, the pillar of light that came down upon him was hard to miss.

**XxXXxX**

The Monochromon looked in confusion at the spot Takato once held. He had no idea what was going on; one second he'd been there, the next he was gone.

But though he didn't know how it had happened, he did know _what_ had happened.

His prey had escaped.

He didn't even have a chance to feel disappointed, though.

His eyes widened as he snapped his head to the side.

They were here.

Fear took him, then. Fear born of the knowledge of what was coming.

Death is not a hunter unbeknownst to its prey.

But even so, it would try.

Monochromon turned and ran, cursing the flat plane that was all that was left of this area. It was probably going to be erased soon and, if he survived, he would see the new world.

But in all likelihood, he wouldn't live to see it.

How disappointing.

"Monochromon X." A voice echoed across the area.

Monochromon wasn't stupid enough to look around for its source.

"You are in violation of the will of Yggdrasil. You have resisted the X-Program by gaining illegal possession of the X-Antibody and have attempted to violate the New Digital World by entering the Urd Terminal. Do you have anything to say in your defense?" The voice asked.

Monochromon roared a reply, but it turned into an agonized scream before it was even out of his mouth and a blast of energy took him in the side.

He exploded into data a moment later.

"I didn't think so." It said, a bit disappointed.

The owner of the voice landed on the ground and the data of the slain Monochromon began to gravitate towards him. He absorbed it dutifully; standard procedure when dealing with X Digimon.

If you didn't absorb them, the X-Antibody could spread.

But as he absorbed the Monochromon's memory data, he felt something. He couldn't gain another Digimon's memories this way, but he still felt something as he absorbed the most recent of the saved data.

He looked to the West, thoughtfully.

"Is there a problem?" A voice asked him, as if speaking in his ear.

His 'partner.' Or, at least, the Digimon that Yggdrasil had named as his partner.

He closed his eyes for a moment before turning away from whatever he was looking at.

He only had one partner.

"It's nothing." He said.

Dukemon took to the skies.

**XxXXxX**

Takato found himself on a beach he didn't recognize.

But then, he didn't recognize anything in this world anymore.

The Ocean was full of dark waters, the land a lifeless gray. Even the color of his clothes seemed to have been sucked out.

More unnervingly, despite the lack of moving light sources, shadows seemed to writhe around him.

Takato cast them a nervous glance before calling out.

"I'm here, whoever you are! Where are you!? What do you need me for!?"

Takato wasn't sure what he should have been expecting, but a whining noise wasn't it.

Takato whirled around and found a still shape on the shore. The dark waves beat against her and she seemed to be injured as even that caused her pain.

Takato hurried to it and found something he _did_ recognize, if only vaguely.

A beaten Plotmon lay still in the sand. It was covered in wounds that could only have been inflicted.

Takato's heart hurt just looking at her. The Digital World had always been bad, but…now it seemed even worse.

What had happened?

"Were you the one who called me?" Takato asked. He doubted it; the voice he'd heard wasn't on he'd expect from a Child level.

The Plotmon managed to open one eye, but that seemed to be all it could do.

Takato closed his eyes for a moment. It didn't matter. He was here now; he'd help.

"Come on. I know some basic first aid." Takato said, doing his best to be gentle as he picked her up.

**XxXXxX**

Later that day, as the dim Sun of this dark world began to set, he stroked the Child Digimon's fur while sitting on the shore.

He didn't know anything about Digimon Medicine or Biology, but he was aware of how strong they were. He was pretty sure she'd be okay.

"Were you the one who called me here?" He asked again. She'd fade out of consciousness a few hours before and had woken up again twenty something minutes ago.

Her eyes glimmered with confusion, which Takato took as a no.

"There doesn't seem to be anyone else in here right now. I think…I think whoever called me here was bringing me to you. Do you know who'd do something like that?" He asked, moving deft fingers to scratch behind her ears. She leaned into his touch after a moment.

"No." She said. She sounded as weak as she looked. "There's no one."

"You can't think of anyone who'd want to help you?" Takato asked. She moved her head a fraction; the closest she could get to shaking it without injuring herself.

Takato closed his eyes for a moment.

"I'm here." He said after a moment. "I want to help you. If anybody else asks you that question, tell them Matsuda Takato would want to help you."

"Takato…"

He smiled as she tried out his name before they lapsed into silence.

"Hey, how'd you get here?" Takato asked.

"…Huh?"

"I got her in a weird, pillar of light descending from the Heavens thing, but what about you. How'd you get on this shore in your shape?"

"…I was running from…someone. I wished I was anywhere else…anywhere they couldn't get me and…and then…I was here." Plotmon said. "How…?"

Takato looked down at her. She sounded like she really didn't know.

"Sometimes things happen that we don't understand. Things that we can't explain. And we call them Miracles."

"…Miracles…?" She said, disbelieving.

"You don't believe in Miracles, Plotmon?" He asked, smiling gently.

Plotmon shook her head again.

"I do. I just saw one. You were in danger, and you found yourself whisked away to a safe place. I was being chased, and a pillar of light sent me to the aid of a damsel in distress."

Plotmon laughed at that, which seemed to hurt her.

"Damsel?" She asked, smiling wryly at him.

"Of course! I may not look like it without my partner here, but…I moonlight as a knight in shining armor, you know."

"My hero." She said, playing along. "But who'd send a knight in shining armor to save me?"

"It's a Miracles; who knows? Maybe God? Or a Digital Equivalent."

Plotmon bared her teeth.

"I doubt this world's God would send anyone to rescue me."

Takato frowned at that.

"Oh?"

**XxXXxX**

"Yggdrasil? Who's that?" Takato asked, frowning.

"Yggdrasil is the 'God' of this world."

"He's not doing a very good job; this place has gone to hell." Takato commented

Plotmon laughed mockingly.

"Oh, he's doing a very good job! At destroying the entire _world_!"

Takato's eyes widened at that.

"What?"

"Yggdrasil apparently decided the Digital World had gotten a bit too crowded and, apparently the only way to deal with the problem was to kill 98% of all the Digimon in existence! He and his servants wanted to kill us all!"

Takato listened in silent, morbid fascination.

"Of course, nobody in their right mind was gonna go along with _that_; we resisted." Her face became grim. "And he released the X-Virus in retaliation."

"The X-Virus?"

"His goal was to kill 98% of the population. The X-Virus was how he succeeded. He moved the 2% he wanted to keep into his 'new' Digital World and he unleashed the X-Virus on everyone left behind—and it killed almost everyone."

"Almost…Plotmon, before I came here, I was being chased by a Monochromon thing. It looked different, but I'm sure that was a Monochromon. What about the Digimon the X-Virus didn't kill?"

"They adapted. Evolved. They're called X Digimon; the Digimon that survived, whether due to their own strength or mere luck, internalized the X-Virus and developed an Antibody. In the process, they were altered somehow; it increased their power and changed their appearances."

"So…that really was Monochromon?"

"Technically, he'd be Monochromon X if he'd been changed; that's what we call them. But yeah."

"What about you? Are you Plotmon X?" Takato asked, looking at her in confusion. "You look like a normal Plotmon."

She looked at the ground as if ashamed.

"No. I wasn't strong enough, my luck is horrible, and Yggdrasil had no reason to spare me. I was just another Digimon that was going to die. Still am, I guess."

Takato closed his eyes again.

"You're not going to die. Not while I'm here. I'd have to turn in my shining goggles if I could save at least one person from the X-Virus."

Plotmon didn't say anything in reply.

**XxXXxX**

Takato was bored. And thankful! But mainly bored.

Plotmon had been in really bad shape and it had taken most of two days for her to heal—which was a long, long time for a Digimon.

But she _had_ healed. Her body seemed a bit stiff, but she could walk without feeling pain. That was why he was thankful—well, that and the fact that he didn't need to eat in the Digital World, because there was nothing to eat or do in this dark place.

And that was the reason he was bored; because he was still stuck in this place. Now that Plotmon could walk, they were moving down the beach, but no matter how far they moved, nothing seemed to change. They were stuck in this dark, faded world.

And while on one hand, there didn't seem to be anyone else in here, meaning it was safe—something he was thankful for since without Guilmon he would largely amount to a chew toy if anything found him—on the other hand…

He couldn't find Guilmon in here, either. After hearing what was going on, Takato was worried. What if _Guilmon_ had been caught by the X-Virus? Is he alive right now? Did he adapt? Did he get chosen to move into the new Digital World?

He had to find out.

But even so, he didn't want to drag Plotmon into his own issues. It would be dangerous and the odds of him getting hurt or dying were high and he couldn't force that on her; especially not after what she'd already been though.

Though, in the end, he supposed it didn't really matter. He had no way out and there was nothing he could do, so he was stuck here anyway.

Lacking any other option, he fell back on the only method left to him when it came dispelling boredom and tried to strike up a conversation with his companion.

"Hey, Plotmon, what were you doing before this whole thing started?" He asked. A part of him was nervous about inquiring about her past, but he was running out of conversational topics. The truth of the matter was, if you took away everything about Guilmon, another topic he'd tried to avoid thus far, he was a pretty boring person.

"…Waiting."

That sounded interesting.

"Oh? For who? Is there someone out there waiting for you?" He asked, smiling.

"I don't know." She said, sounding frustrated. "But ever since I hatched as Nyaromon, I've always felt there was someone I was supposed to wait for. I waited so long…I was always waiting…"

And now it was sounding sad.

"Did you ever find them?" He asked, secretly hoping this was one of those stories that started grim but became better and didn't end with Dark Oceans and X-Viruses and Genocides.

Yes, he was aware that was futile.

Plotmon shook her head.

Takato winced. He tried to think of something to say to lighten the mood and drag her thoughts away from what she must have been thinking—if nearly 98% of the Digital World had died, what were the odds that she'd ever find who she was looking for? It was the safe question he'd been trying to ignore since he first thought of it—because if the odds of one person surviving that were low, what were the odds that all of his friends would make it out okay?

"I'm looking for someone, too." He told her, before kicking himself mentally.

Yeah, this would make her feel better, you dumbass.

Plotmon looked at him, though, and when he looked into her eyes he felt like continuing for some reason.

"His name's Guilmon. He's my friend. Partner, too. The two of us…we went through a lot together. I…I want to find him, so I came here. But…I was attacked. I'm not strong enough to do anything in this world by myself." He continued, embarrassed.

God, this was getting depressing.

"…Me, too." Plotmon said, understandingly.

"What?"

"Me, too. When I evolved into Plotmon, I…I stopped waiting and started searching. I wanted to find the person I was waiting for so badly, but… but I couldn't. No matter how far or hard or long I searched, I couldn't find them—I nearly died trying to find them and I couldn't. And now…"

They looked at each other sympathetically.

Takato silently noted that if this continued, they were probably going to drown in their own depression or something. Hell, the world even seemed darker now, and the black waters of the ocean seemed to be sneaking higher and higher whenever he looked away for a moment, like jealous, grasping claws.

Takato was unnerved by that observation, but passed it off as being high-tide.

He looked back at Plotmon and drew on wisdom forged from experience.

If the emo gets too high, you just have to smack it back down.

"I'll help you." He declared, startling the Child.

"What?" She asked, blinking up at him.

"I'll help you find who you're looking for. I promise that I'll help you find them. And I'll take you there safely, too." He smiled at her, kneeling down. "My word as a knight."

She looked up at him in awe. Was she that surprised that he'd do this?

He reached out and gently lifted her chin.

"Don't look so surprised…We're friends, aren't we?"

Her expression brightened after a moment. Or maybe it was the world. Was it this bright a minute ago?

Takato looked around.

It seemed almost…colorful, now.

"Yeah! Me, too!"

He didn't understand that last part, so he looked back at the small Digimon.

"Hm?"

"I'll help you, too. I'll help you find Guilmon. We'll…find them together."

Takato opened his mouth to reply, though even he wasn't sure what he was going to say, but the words would never be spoken.

Because around them, the world shattered. Cracks grew in thin air before the entire thing broke like a pane of glass and feel out of existence. And when it did…

They were nowhere near the ocean. They were in a forest; a beautiful, colorful forest full of life and splendor.

The two of them looked around in amazement at the sheer magnificence of it. Neither of them had ever seen anything like this before.

"This…this is…" Plotmon stuttered. "The new Digital World."

"It's beautiful." Takato breathed.

"What do we do?" She asked.

Takato turned back towards her with a wide grin. "Isn't it obvious? We have people to find. Let's go find them together."

And so the set forth, taking their first steps into a new world. So far, they were alone; Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

But would it last?

Unlikely. Because even if he was Adam…

She was no Eve.

**XxXXxX**


	2. Chapter 2: BlackTailmon

**Seductive Shadows**

**BlackTailmon**

**XxXXxX**

"Puppy Howling!" Takato ordered.

Plotmon complied, releasing a high-pitched scream. Even through his covered ears, it hurt listening to that.

Gabumon X apparently agreed as it replied with a howl of its own; a howl of pain.

"Sledge Dash!" Plotmon cried, following up by plowing right into the larger Digimon. She hit him with enough force to knock him over, leaving her on top of him.

"Petit Punch!" She didn't miss a beat, hitting the Gabumon an instant later.

She immediately bounded away; she didn't want to risk taking a counter attack. Something they'd learnt; Plotmon was weaker then pretty much everyone they would meet in this new world. She could make up for it with Puppy Howling and surprise attacks, but head-on 'fair' fights are impossible.

But they'd had time to perfect this style over the last few weeks. She couldn't do much against Adults, but she could defeat any Child they came across if she played her cards right.

Sure enough, Gabumon finally fell. It had taken a few minutes to wear down the X Digimon, but she'd done it.

Takato walked up behind her after he was sure Gabumon wasn't getting back up.

"Good job, Plotmon." He said with a casual smile, as if they did this every day.

Which, granted, they did.

Plotmon smiled at him, but her smile turned nervous when she glanced at the fallen Gabumon.

"Should I…kill him?" She asked.

It was an issue that made her uncomfortable.

Takato was significantly less uncomfortable with killing people that tried to do the same to him, but he could understand her feelings. He looked closely at Gabumon X.

"He's not going anywhere for now. There's no need to kill a fallen opponent."

It just made more sense than leaving them alive, he didn't say. Besides, if there was one thing he'd noticed, it was that Yggdrasil and his servants were really merciless when it came to X Digimon. If they left the fallen Gabumon here, odds were he wouldn't be getting up.

Takato knew that. And Plotmon did too.

He looked into her eyes, suppressed a sigh, and approached the fallen Gabumon. He picked him up and moved him out of sight.

It was better than nothing.

He moved back to Plotmon's side and looked at her. She smiled beautifully at him and he felt a bit guilty over how much he wanted to tell her to just kill him and take his X-Antibody so she'd be safer.

He tried to change the subject.

"This Gabumon was running from something." He said. "Before he attacked us."

"Yeah." Plotmon said. "I noticed. I smelt something burning, too."

"He came from that direction." Takato said, nodding his head towards the Northeast. "Should we move towards it or away from it?"

Plotmon was silent for a moment, before swallowing.

She began moving forward.

Takato smiled at her, though she couldn't see it.

He followed.

**XxXXxX**

When he saw what Gabumon was running from, he was significantly less happy.

No, scratch that; he was flat-out pissed off.

It was a village. Emphasis on was.

It was burst, broken, and crushed. There was no one in sight, probably because Digimon don't leave behind corpses.

Takato's hands clinched into fists.

Why?

Suddenly, he felt really grateful towards Plotmon for keeping him from killing Gabumon.

He must have been running from a massacre and thought them servants of Yggdrasil.

After all, Plotmon wasn't an X Digimon.

Takato closed his eyes as his teeth pulled away from his teeth.

But why? Why was Yggdrasil doing this? Takato understood killing those that tried to kill you, but why did Yggdrasil destroy this village?

Takato was well aware that Yggdrasil was a monster, but he'd considered him a calm, logical monster. The Digital World was overpopulated, so he lowered the population. A horrible act, but it was at least logical.

But Takato was well aware that there were no gatherings of X Digimon large enough to populate an entire village. They were hunted down constantly and they had to be on the move at all times.

And even if it was, this wasn't a military base. There were no fortifications, this was not a strategic position, this was…this was…

Takato moved forward, seeing something in the rubble. He shifted through the broken wood and glass as carefully as he could, wincing several times when he cut his hands anyway.

But it was worth it to reveal what was underneath.

A small stuffed doll, the kind owned by a child. One of its arms was torn most of the way off, releasing stuffing. He took it in his hands after a moment.

"Yggdrasil, you bastard." Takato whispered, his hands clenching around it, drops of blood staining the fabric.

Why? Had he destroyed this village just to get at Gabumon or a few other X Digimon? Was that reason enough to kill so many innocents?

What the hell was Yggdrasil doing?

He suddenly noticed Plotmon wasn't by his side and quickly stood up, not releasing the doll.

He suddenly didn't want to let her out of his sight.

He quickly found her sniffing the ground.

"Plotmon, what's wrong?"

"They went that way." She said.

It was the way they'd come.

In the direction they'd left Gabumon.

Takato narrowed his eyes.

"Let's go."

He knew what Yggdrasil was doing. He'd known for awhile, but the knowledge that he was partner-less and powerless always calmed him before he could get worked up.

But after this, he couldn't suppress his anger anymore.

Even if it was stupid…he couldn't change who he was.

He was a Knight. A Protector of the Innocent. A Defender of the Real and Digital Worlds. He was a Tamer. And though he may be a fool, he wasn't a coward.

Yggdrasil was killing innocents.

Nobody got away with that on his watch.

**XxXXxX**

They arrived just in time.

Yggdrasil's servant, a Mechanorimon, was attacking Gabumon X, who seemed to have woken up. It was obvious who was going to win; Gabumon was fighting a higher level Digimon while still exhausted from his previous fight.

Added to the mechanical nature of his opponent and its mindless loyalty to a being that seemed intent to butcher everything, it was also obvious what would happen after the fight was over.

Takato wasn't going to let that happen.

"Plotmon! The red thing on its chest!"

"Sledge Dash!" The small Digimon faced the larger one down without fear. She slammed her entire body into its red optic circle without a trace of hesitation.

It cracked and the force was enough to make the larger Digimon step back.

"Get out of here if you want to live!" She shouted to the Gabumon without taking her eyes off her opponent.

The other Child hesitated for a moment but began to run.

Mechanorimon moved to stop him and Plotmon moved even faster to prevent that.

"Puppy Howling!"

The incredibly high pitched noise made the Adult Digimon pause and Plotmon took advantage of it as she had trained for weeks to do.

"Sledge Dash!" She exploded forward, slamming into the optic circle again, forcing the cracks on it to widen.

She attempted to back away as she normally did, but Mechanorimon was still an Adult Digimon. As she tried to do so, he struck at her with lightning speed, tearing a pained yelp from her throat and tossing her away.

"Plotmon!" Takato cried, rushing to his friend's side.

He was well aware what would happen if his friend lied there prone for even a moment while fighting a higher level Digimon.

"Gyro Break!" The Machine Digimon launched a number of disk-like bombs at his target.

Takato pitched himself forward, grabbed Plotmon, forced himself to ignore her pained whimper, turned the dive into a roll, clutched Plotmon to his chest, and curled his body in to less the inevitable impact.

The bombs exploded less than five feet away.

It hurt. A lot.

Takato gasped at the heat that came first; it probably lasted only a second, but it felt like so much longer as it scorched the skin on his back.

The force of the explosion came next. Well, realistically, it probably came together with the heat, but the horrible burning of his back drowned out the pain of the impact. As it was, he only became aware of it when he realized he was in the air.

Finally, he hit the ground. To Takato's credit, he was able to think despite the pain, curling around Plotmon as he landed.

On the Brightside, he succeeded in both keeping Plotmon from hitting the ground and trapping her under his own weight, which would have been even worse, as it would have kept her from moving.

In this case, that could be fatal.

On the downside, he ended up taking most of the impact to his wounded back.

He gasped at the pain, contorting reflexively in an attempt to make it hurt less.

It didn't work.

"Takato!" Plotmon cried. He could tell because of her voice, not because he could see her; his vision was sort of going black right now.

He blinked quickly. He needed to see, damn it! Where was Mechanorimon?

His vision came back just enough for him to see something that sort of resembled a strange ink blob, whose location seemed to be the same as the weight on his chest.

Plotmon?

"Twinkle Beam!" His ears were working fine though, so he could hear Mechanorimon just fine.

He wrapped his arms around the thing, hoped to God that it was Plotmon, and rolled over, putting himself between the two Digimon.

It would have been more impressive if he wasn't well aware that Mechanorimon's attack would just cut through him and hit Plotmon anyway.

"Takato? Takato! What are you doing! Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, please be okay!" Plotmon's voice came to him a moment later.

Which didn't make any sense, since it would require him to be alive to hear it.

He tried to reply, to reassure her and tell her he was fine. It came out as a twisted choking sound that wouldn't reassure anyone.

As his vision cleared enough to make out definite shapes, he tried to figure out why he was still alive.

What he saw just pissed him off even more.

Mechanorimon was facing away from them.

Specifically, he was facing the direction Gabumon had been running in.

And as for Gabumon…

There was nothing but a cloud of data.

Takato's strange choking increased and got louder.

"Why?" Plotmon asked, attracted to the sight by Takato's expression and choking. "Why are you doing this? Why? Why are you killing everyone?"

She started squirming underneath him. Takato tried to keep her from escaping and drawing attention to herself, but he wasn't in much of a position to do anything.

She escaped his grasp.

"Why? What did we do? Was the old Digital World really that bad? What did we ever do? We were just living our lives and…and you…and you tore down our entire World!" Tears were beginning to emerge from her eyes. "Was that not enough for you? Do you have to burn down this world, too? Is that it?"

Takato hated seeing her cry. And for than that, he hated himself for not being able to do anything about it.

But he couldn't do anything. So instead, he looked at her, tortured by what he was feeling. Anger, sadness, fear, shame, and…

Something else.

"I hate you!" Plotmon continued through her sobs, even as Mechanorimon turn towards her. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! Why did you do this to us? Why did you do this to me? W-why did you hurt Takato!"

Mechanorimon's optic circle began to glow. Takato wanted to scream for her to run. He wanted to pick her up and carry her far away from this place. He wanted to pick up the shattered pieces of her innocence and her life and put them back together.

But he couldn't do anything. So he watched helplessly as that strange feeling he couldn't identify grew stronger.

Mechanorimon prepared to fire, but not before Plotmon got off a few last words.

"I wish…I wish you would just…I wish all of you would just disappear!"

And everything changed in an instant.

For Mechanorimon, it was an explosion of light and an eruption of data that disrupted his sensors. He fired his Twinkle Beam anyway, but it failed to hit anything. In his defense, he wouldn't have been able to hit if he hadn't been blinded, either.

For Takato, it was like the strange feeling reached its limit and erupted, He was blinded by the light that came from Plotmon, but he was also blinded by the light that he, himself, emited. The last thing he felt before losing consciousness was something in his hands.

And for Plotmon, it was so much more.

"Plotmon, shinka…"

Her body grew, especially her ears and tail. Her collar like ring disappeared as she grew whiskers. Her paws grew as her coloration vastly changed. The gloves that formed around her forepaws. And to complete the transformation, her beautiful blue eyes changed.

The yellow eyes of a predator stared out of a new face.

"BlackTailmon!"

The new born Demon Beast strode forward calmly, the tail that was its namesake swaying behind her.

She glanced at her unconscious friend, looking at his horribly wounded back. She cast her eyes back at her opponent and narrowed them.

"Twinkle Be-" Mechanorimon began but could not finish.

BlackTailmon tore her right hand out of his body, where it had pierced his optic circle. It had broken through it like it was made of paper and pierced deep into the gears and machines within.

One in particular she tore out. The source of his Twinkle Beam.

She looked at it, seeming a bit bored, before lifting it up to him.

She crushed it with her bare hand.

"Shut the hell up." She said.

Mechanorimon tried to attack her. He swept one of his arms at her as he had with Plotmon.

But she wasn't Plotmon. Not anymore.

She blurred out of the way, moving so fast he thought he'd actually hit her.

But he didn't.

She stood, holding one of the claw-like extensions that passed as his fingers, standing in the same spot she had been before he'd attacked.

But his claw had passed through that space. She held it now with its back facing her.

He hadn't even seen her move.

She blinked those yellow eyes at him lazily before twisting her wrist.

The metal finger she held bent backwards until it touched the back of his hand.

"Tell me…can you feel pain?" She asked, curiously. "I hope so."

She was on his shoulder so quickly she might have teleported there. She grabbed his arm where it connected to his body and-

And she tore it off.

She looked at his then, glee shining in those yellow eyes, hefting his stolen appendage like a weapon.

She slammed into, no, _through_, the glass hemisphere that protected his cockpit. She slammed it in so hard that it penetrated the delicate circuitry and controls within.

The Machine Digimon lost control of its body.

BlackTailmon hopped down and looked at him silently for a moment.

"You did all this…you killed so many innocent people…and for what? Did Yggdrasil promise you a reward?" She asked.

He couldn't have replied if he'd wanted to.

"Tell me…was it enough? What did all this murder gain you?"

She clinched one of her paws into a fist.

"Not even one more day of life." She hissed.

She pulled her fist back and brought it back down like and executioners axe.

And so ended Mechanorimon.

**XxXXxX**

She gestured towards the data that used to be her opponent and it stilled its random movements. She motioned towards Takato's prone body and it gravitated towards him.

It quickly began to heal him. The charred skin on his back healed and mended, quickly becoming the health pink of new skin before slowly beginning to match his normal tone. Minor cuts and bruises, likely caused by his fall, healed next. After that, the spare data began to fix his clothes as well.

In seconds, he was in pristine condition.

She walked towards him slowly and sat down by his head. He'd wake soon.

Sure enough, after a minute, he groaned and began to move.

He opened his eyes and looked at her for a moment of incomprehension.

Then he lifted his hand. BlackTailmon noted interestedly that he held a black and purple device in it.

She hadn't seen that before.

Takato sat up and looked at her again.

"Plotmon?" He asked.

She gave him a catlike smile.

He looked around.

"Where's Mechanorimon?" He wondered.

"I killed him." She said simply. "I don't regret it."

He turned back to her, looking into her eyes while she looked into his.

There was no judgment there. Only a bit of sadness.

He reached out towards her and she didn't flinch. He slowly began to scratch her behind the ears. After a moment, she leaned into his touch.

"It's okay. I'm not going to judge you for something like that." He told her, picking up on her worry.

"I hate them." She told him. "I wish they would all die."

"I hate them, too. It's okay to hate, sometimes. To feel powerful emotions, for them to compel you to act…that's called passion, and by itself, it's not wrong. Just don't let it control you. If you lose your grip on it, it'll be torn from your grasp. But if you don't keep it sharpened and focused, it's useless." He lifted her chin and smiled at her. "It's for that reason, that our hearts can be like blades."

She smiled wider.

"Words of wisdom from a Knight?"

He laughed.

After a moment, she did, too.

Their moment of happiness was interrupted by a sound from Takato's new device.

BlackTailmon nodded towards it as he lifted it.

"What is that?" She asked.

"This?" He smiled. "It's a Digivice. It's proof of the bond between a human and a Digimon."

"What's that mean?" She wondered, frowning.

"Isn't it obvious?" He tilted his head to the side in faux confusion before smiling even wider. "…It means we're partners."

She did her best not to show how happy it made her to hear him say that.

He looked at their Digivice and frowned, and expression she quickly took note of.

"What's wrong?"

"There is a group of Digimon heading in our direction. A big one."

He looked thoughtful for a moment.

"A single Mechanorimon probably couldn't destroy an entire village." He said after a moment.

"You think this is the rest of the group?"

"Probably."

"…Good." She said, standing up.

He looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not running anymore." She told him. "Will you stand with me, partner?"

He touched her face gently.

"I ran up 'til now. I told myself there was nothing I could do. I told myself I couldn't help them without Guilmon. I told myself I needed to protect you. Maybe that was true." He looked away. "But maybe it wasn't. Maybe I would have died if I'd stood against the first servant of Yggdrasil I saw. I probably would have."

He looked back towards her.

"But that's what you did. That's what I think Guilmon would have done. And even if it was stupid, maybe it's what I should have done. But it wasn't and I can't change the past. But I believe I can change the future. And if my future involved running from Yggdrasil, it changed right now." He stood as well. "I'm with you all the way, BlackTailmon."

They didn't look at each other.

But they didn't need to.

The smiles on their faces were enough.

The stared steadily onwards as the first of the Mechanorimon came into view. One by one they came, landing one after another.

Lined up in neat little rows like little toy soldiers, Takato thought and the thought made him chuckle.

"You ready, partner?" He asked.

"I was born ready."

His chuckle became a laugh as he bared his teeth at the assembled machines.

"Come at us all at once, you fuckers!"

**XxXXxX**

Dukemon of the Royal Knights stood at attention among his fellows.

Well, not all of them, of course. As Yggdrasil's strongest and most loyal, they were almost never all together in one place.

There was always something going on, after all.

This time there were only four of them, which was still a surprisingly large number.

Dynasmon and LordKnightmon were here. That was a pair he'd never understood, but they worked very well together. Dukemon couldn't say he knew how they'd managed to work out their differences, but they had.

And considering just _how_ different they were, that was something. When they'd first been put together, the other Knights, or, at least, the ones that had been recruited before those two had been partnered, had created a betting pool on how long it would take them to kill each other.

Omegamon had one, being the only one that had faith in Yggdrasil's decision at the time.

The other two were Sleipmon and himself. Honestly, Dukemon liked Sleipmon as a person and he was a reliable ally.

But he'd been shoved into the position of his partner.

And that was a position he had no business trying to take.

Even so, Dukemon was aware that he was being unfair and had only ever once voiced his opinion. He also did his best to think of Sleipmon as being like Renamon and Terriermon; as an ally, an equal, and a very close friend.

But not his partner.

After that, they had gotten along well enough.

Besides, it was like having Grani back.

The door opened, drawing Dukemon's attention.

Omegamon entered and Dukemon stiffened at the sight of him.

Among all the Royal Knights, Omegamon was the one he was closest with. Originally, he'd been disappointed to find that they wouldn't be teammates. If he'd had a choice in who to partner with, it would have been a list like this: Takato, Omegamon, Nobody, and Everyone Else.

Having said that, Omegamon pretty much never brought good news when he called meetings like this. Though, granted, that was probably because he just sent them a message if it was good news.

Dukemon glanced at the doorway and was surprised when Omegamon closed it behind him. His partner wasn't here.

Craniummon and Omegamon had the highest success rate of any team in the Royal Knights, having never failed a mission they performed together. This was probably because they had the highest success rates individually, too; Omegamon had never failed a single mission, and he'd performed the most out of all the Royal Knights. Craniummon had failed one once, supposedly.

They generally stuck together though, as their success and completion rate together was higher than either of their separate scores.

If they'd split up, things must be really bad.

Dukemon didn't have much time to wonder about it though, because, if nothing else, Omegamon was good at getting things done.

That was why he was the leader while Alphamon was gone.

And Alphamon was always gone.

"Two things of importance have happened recently that you might not be aware of. First of all, the Crest of Lust has been detected, meaning Lilithmon has made it into the new Digital World. Her current location is unknown and there have not been any eye witness reports."

Dukemon closed his eyes. A Great Demon Lord. Those guys were always a pain and people always got hurt when they showed up.

They were also some of the strongest Digimon in existence.

What to do? Would all four of us be getting sent after her? That might be for the best; finish this as quickly as possible.

But if Craniummon and Omegamon were already aware of it and on the job, what was the point. Omegamon alone…

"Second of all, there have been reports of a Plotmon traveling the Digital World."

Dukemon put his previous thoughts on hold to take a moment to think about that.

He was surprised and confused.

A Plotmon? Not even a Plotmon X?

A Child level Digimon was in the Digital World.

Who cares?

"She's is neither an X Digimon nor a Digimon chosen by Yggdrasil, yet she seems to have survived the X-Virus."

That was slightly more interesting, but Dukemon still didn't see the point. Couldn't he have just ordered some Adults to deal with it? What was the point in telling that to four Ultimates?

Unless this was Omegamon's strange way of giving them time off and the Plotmon in question was currently heading towards the most beautiful beaches in the world, Dukemon was going to have to ask if there was a point to all this.

Omegamon turned towards him and looked into his eyes. Dukemon briefly worried about him being able to read his mind.

That happens sometimes when you live in the Digital World…

"She was last seen traveling in the company of a human." Omegamon said slowly. "A brown-haired, red-eyed, goggle-wearing human male, who seems to have some degree of familiarity with the Digital World in general."

Dukemon's thought processes skid to a halt as he understood what Omegamon was saying.

Takato?

**XxXXxX**

"Give me a minute." Dukemon told Sleipmon.

The horse-like Royal Knight glanced at Omegamon's back and nodded once.

Dukemon increased his speed until he could match Omegamon's stride.

The older and more powerful Knight glanced his way inquisitively.

"Thank you." Dukemon said. "You called this meeting so you'd be able to tell me about the human wandering the Digital World, didn't you?"

Omegamon nodded.

"You've always spoken very highly of the boy, Dukemon, and I think you a good judge of character. I believe that if there is a possibility of being able to meet your friend again, you should take advantage of it. You and Sleipmon are to look for the Plotmon and the human. The rest of us will scour the Digital World for signs of Lilithmon."

Dukemon felt a bit guilty at that.

"You doing this in addition to your normal duties, aren't you Omegamon? To give me a chance to look for him?" He asked.

When he spoke in singular, he meant it. He didn't care about Plotmon.

Omegamon chuckled.

"What are friends for?" He asked. He then looked down at his junior thoughtfully. "I know how hard it is to have lost your partner and I know that you feel that Sleipmon is trying to take something from you be filling the roll, but…Sleipmon is a good person. That's why I approved of your partnership in the first place. Give him a chance; I'm sure you'll find his aid quite helpful in tracking down your friend. He tries his best, you know. I explained things to him; he's not trying to violate your memory of your Tamer."

Dukemon looked down at that, feeling even guiltier.

"You're right, of course. I'll try." He said, before pausing for a moment. "It's just hard sometimes."

Omegamon nodded understandably.

"I know, Dukemon. I have lost friends as well. But even so, you should not let the past interfere with attempts to make new friends. Do you think your Tamer would wish for you to keep from making friends?"

Dukemon didn't lift his eyes. He wanted to be upset over his senior using his Tamers memory against him like this, but he was well aware that he was right. He'd told himself as much before.

"Speaking of which…" Omegamon's eyes narrowed.

Uh-oh.

"You should tell them." He said.

Damn.

"What do you mean?" He asked, hoping Omegamon would see his reluctance and let it go.

"Your old friends. The other partnered Digimon. I think you've been neglecting them."

It hurt because it was true.

"I'm not neglecting them." He tried to justify anyway. "I've just been busy."

"You're not busy right now. I know, because I cleared your schedule so you can look for your partner."

"Then shouldn't I be doing that so that I can return to work?" He tried.

Omegamon wasn't buying any of it.

"Yes; you can start by asking the others what they think a Tamer would do in this situation. They do, I believe, have experience in that regard." The stronger Digimon said in a voice that might as well have said 'I am the Law.'

Dukemon sighed.

"I'll go see them." He said at last. "Come on, Sleipmon."

The Red Knight looked up from a computer screen he was examining.

Dukemon glanced at it. It displayed the available information concerning Plotmon and the Human. Sleipmon was already on the job.

He'd probably realized this was important to him and was trying to help out his friend.

Damn, again. He felt like an asshole now.

"We are we going?"

"To visit my old friends from way back in my Tamer days."

**XxXXxX**

To be completely honest, he was nervous. He was secure enough to except and acknowledge that.

Even so, he wasn't going to show it.

Scratch that, he wasn't going to show it in front of his fellow Knight.

God damn peer pressure.

With that in mind, Dukemon strode through the gate with a confidence he did not feel.

"Ah, Dukemon. What do I owe the pleasure?"

Dukemon very deliberately did not wince at Renamon's voice. It wasn't harsh. It wasn't accusing. It was her normal, calm voice. It was only thanks to his history that he was even able to understand what she meant.

And thankfully, she meant exactly what she was asking. It was nothing but a question to a friend that hadn't been around recently.

Probably. Almost definitely. He thought he was pretty good at understanding Renamon.

But never completely sure.

And that always made him just a little bit uncomfortable these days.

"Renamon." He nodded to her. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit recently. It's been hectic."

"I can imagine." She said, and once again there was nothing accusing in her voice.

Dukemon hoped that was because she didn't feel anything accusing. Some of his old friends were…weary of his new job. Upset, even. Not towards him, thankfully; they remained his close friends. But towards Yggdrasil, they weren't so sure.

There had been rumors. About Yggdrasil.

Some of his friends weren't sure if they were true or not.

Thankfully, they seemed to trust his judgment, by and large. But from time to time, the issue always came up.

Renamon had never lifted the issue herself, though.

And maybe that was the problem.

Even after all these years…

Even after all the fights they've stood by each other…

He still didn't know what was going on behind those blue eyes of hers.

_Renamon, what are you thinking?_

He wanted to ask, he opened his mouth to ask, but he faltered at the last second, changing his mind.

"I brought company." He said instead, gesturing to Sleipmon.

"So I see." Renamon tilted her head to the side in order to get a better look at his companion. "Hello, Sleipmon."

The red, horse-like Knight nodded at Renamon.

Dukemon realized something suddenly and it embarrassed him.

He was nervous to bring the other Knights around his old friends.

Especially Renamon.

He wasn't sure why. The other Knights had accepted his friends when he vouched for them; even Beelzebumon. And he was sure that his older friends wouldn't mind the Knights if he brought them around. They might question Yggdrasil, but the Royal Knights were not above criticism.

They were used to it.

Did he just not want to share?

Dukemon frowned. He should really try to be less…possessive.

But even then, Renamon was different.

"I came to ask for your opinion on something unusual." He asked, not letting his thoughts show.

"Oh? Is something wrong?" Renamon asked, showing emotion for the first time in the conversation.

Dukemon winced as he recognized it.

"Nothing dangerous." He assured her.

When he and the others were thrown back into the Digital World, Renamon took the role of…what? Their parent, perhaps? Or maybe just their leader. They'd all been to the Digital World…

But only with their Tamers.

Without the ability to evolve and in the aftermath of the D-Reaper…

The Digital World had been a very different place.

Without evolution, Guilmon may have still been the strongest, but he'd always had Takato there. Without him, he wasn't completely sure how to survive in a world that was nothing like what he'd remembered.

Renamon had taken it all in stride.

They'd all learnt, of course; what it took to survive in this world. But Renamon had given them the time they'd needed to do that. Impmon had eventually regained his ability to evolve into and Ultimate and at that point they hadn't needed to worry about danger, especially with another Ultimate backing him up, even if MarinAngemon's offensive power was limited. But until he did that, Renamon had organized a group of weak Digimon into a group that could survive this world.

Dukemon would never forget that.

It was one of the reasons he accepted Yggdrasil's offer.

"There's a human wandering the Digital World with a Plotmon." He said before pausing. "His description matches Takato's."

Renamon's eyes widened and Dukemon recognized shock when he saw it.

But it faded quickly, calm overtaking surprise.

"And you want to know how to find him?"

"Well, it's more like Omegamon wanted him to visit you all, used that as an excuse to blackmail him emotionally, and sent him here. And now Dukemon's not sure what to say, so he's reverting to business to ward away any awkward silences." Sleipmon noted casually.

Dukemon threw him a shocked look, but he swerved to turn it towards Renamon at the sound of her soft laughter.

"That sounds like Omegamon." She noted with amusement. "He comes by her quite a bit."

That was news to him.

"He does? Why?"

"He stops by to make sure we're all safe and comfortable, though he says he's just stopping by in your place because you're so busy. He complains you work too hard, Dukemon. He says you should visit more often, too." She looked at him silently for a minute. "I agree with him on both counts."

Dukemon wanted to complain about not being a child, but that would make him look like a child.

"That…sounds like Omegamon." He said instead, sighing. The fact that he was well aware that his friends were just trying to make him feel guilty did not keep it from working.

"About finding Takato, though…I imagine he's looking for you, too." She said.

"Probably…" He said, before mustering up his courage and plowing forward. "How have the others been, Renamon? Is everything okay here? Are _you _okay?"

Renamon smiled.

"Of course, Dukemon. After all…this is the world you gave your service to give us, isn't it?" She said. "It's because of you that all of us are still alive. Dukemon…there's no reason to feel nervous."

Dukemon nearly jumped when Sleipmon laid a hand on his shoulder.

"The lady's right, Dukemon. Relax. Remember, you're among friends here. And…when you're among the Knights, too."

He looked at the ground for a moment before looking at his companion again.

"Yes. You're right. I'm sorry."

**XxXXxX**


	3. Chapter 3: LadyDevimon

**Seductive Shadows**

**LadyDevimon**

Takato walked for the both of them, BlackTailmon resting in his arms.

He wasn't sure whether she was tired or just wanted to be carried. He'd asked her, but she just gave him a catlike smile.

He'd laughed and carried her without comment afterwards. She deserved a rest after such a long day, anyway.

So he walked, leaving the battlefield that would serve as the only memorial to the many dead Mechanorimon behind. He wasn't sure where he was going, so he just picked a direction and headed straight instead. If he found a village, he could ask them for information about any important places or landmarks and head towards that instead, but until then he had no place in particular to go.

But he didn't mind. This world…it was peaceful, in its own way. At least when no one was trying to kill them.

So he stroked BlackTailmon's fur gently as she slept in his arms and continued walking.

He wasn't sure how long he walked, as guessing by the light of day was a futile gesture in the Digital World, but he eventually left the forest. He entered a long grassy field which stretched as far as his eyes could see, but the Digital World's night came over him as he walked through it.

He didn't like traveling in an unfamiliar area when he couldn't see, so he decided to stop, at least until BlackTailmon awoke. She could guide him through the darkness, if need be; a benefit of having the eyes of a cat, he supposed. He found a nice place to sit and closed his eyes-

And snapped them back open when he heard something.

"BlackTailmon." He whispered.

Had he fallen asleep? He'd learnt to do that; to fall asleep at a moment's notice in order to get as much sleep as possible. You could never rely on getting an uninterrupted night's sleep in the Digital World, as this situation demonstrated.

But if he'd fallen asleep, how long had it been? It was still night-time, but there was no moon in the Digital World, nor did the darkness begin to thicken or lessen with time. On moment it was bright day, the next it was pitch black night. Dawn could be seconds away. Or hours. It would have changed nothing in the sky.

The creature in his lap shifted. Yellow eyes opened, shining even in the lack of light.

"I hear it." She said in an equally low voice.

He began to stroke her fur, drawing her attention without making noise.

"Your eyes are glowing." He said.

She understood without him explaining anything and closed them.

"I can use my ears just as well." She said.

He stopped stroking her fur, then. He stopped moving at all, and so did she.

He shut his eyes and they both began to rely on their ears. He tried to listen for any strange sounds, but it was hard to hear anything over the heartbeat that was suddenly pounding in his ears, but he tried his best anyway. He heard the wind rustling the grass, the faint sound of BlackTailmon's quiet breaths, the sound of his own nervous swallow, and the sound of movement-

BlackTailmon stiffened, readying herself to move, though whether to run or pounce he couldn't tell. Takato wanted to do the same, wanted the get ready to move, but experience wouldn't let him.

A Tamer always keeps his Digivice on hand. The unwritten rule one of being a Digimon Tamer.

And so his hand slide to the Digivice clipped to his pants without him even thinking about it.

He felt it before his mind caught to his body.

BlackTailmon's Digivice.

He relaxed, though he wasn't sure why.

He had no cards, though; what could he do with it?

A thought struck him.

"Keep your eyes closed." He murmured.

He received no reply.

There was another shift in the grass, and a barely perceptible tremble went through his partner's body.

He kept his own relaxed; if whoever was out there saw them, he was bigger. He'd be noticed first.

They had to think he was unconscious.

There was a long, silent pause. His partner trembled nervously at the wait, her desire to act barely kept in check.

Takato empathized, but he had to stay still.

So he let her tremble for the both of them.

The seconds passed so slowly it hurt, but then he heard it.

The sound of movement had returned.

And it was coming this way.

It had to get closer, he told himself. But it was hard not to react when a threat was approaching.

So he let it get closer and closer, the sound of its movement's scratching at his mind like an itch.

BlackTailmon shifted, about to move.

Takato's eyes snapped open as her feet left his chest. He lifted his Digivice in one smooth movement and-

It exploded into light. It was even brighter then he'd expected; so, so bright. The light felt like someone shoving their thumbs into his eyes, and for a moment he was blinded as his night vision was sent to hell.

But that was fine.

The same went for BlackTailmon's victim, after all. Takato's ability to seen was unnecessary for this fight.

A startled cry tore itself from their victim's mouth, but it was cut off just as quickly by a feline yowl and the sound of an impact.

There were sounds of a struggle for several seconds, but Takato just waited for his eyes to adjust. At times like these, a Tamer should have faith in their partner. That was rule two.

"Don't kill him." He ordered, blinking as his vision slowly improved. "He could be useful."

The sounds stopped an instant later.

"It's safe." BlackTailmon said a second after that.

Takato strode towards her voice as his eyes finished adjusting.

He had to smile at the sight.

"Well, well, well…look what the cat dragged in. Think he'll cooperate?" He asked.

"He better." She snarled.

Agumon X whimpered on the ground.

**XxXXxX**

Minutes later, the Agumon was sitting across from Takato. He seemed docile and obedient, something that probably had more to do with BlackTailmon's proximity than anything else.

Takato was fine with that, as long it got them answers.

"Let's put something on the table right now." Takato began. "Neither of us are professional interrogators. Quite frankly, neither of us knows the first thing about interrogating. So here's how we're going to do this. I'm going to ask you some questions while BlackTailmon, I don't know, tries to stare into your soul or something. And you're going to answer my questions or she's going to start using here claws. Got it?"

BlackTailmon didn't blink; she'd been glaring at the Agumon silently ever since she'd subdued him. The Child Digimon avoided her predatory yellow eyes but said nothing.

"Where are you from?" Takato asked. It seemed like a good question to him; hopefully the Agumon came from an urban area. If so, they could get directions from him.

That alone would be worth it, never mind the other information the X Digimon could cough up.

The Agumon sneered.

"What's it to y-"

BlackTailmon struck him across the face as soon as she heard bravado in his voice. Takato opened his mouth to protest but closed it when he saw that she hadn't used her claws.

"Answer the question." The Adult Virus ordered.

"You can't do this to me." The Child snarled, more angry than sacred. "Don't you know who I am?"

Takato frowned when he heard the nasal quality of his voice, but decided to let his partner handle it.

She hit him again.

"You're an Agumon. A Child Digimon who's trying to act tough." She said, dismissively.

Takato stepped in at that point, not missing a beat.

"You're a Vaccine type and an X Digimon. Normally, Agumon is a Reptile Digimon, but you're different." He said. "The X-Antibody changed you. Now you're a Dinosaur Digimon. Those blue strips on you are a lot like Greymon's."

He'd checked his Digivice subtly a minute ago. If there was one thing he'd learnt, it was that it sometimes unnerved Digimon that a Tamer could just pull up all that information about them.

Not always.

But sometimes.

The Agumon opened and closed his mouth a few times, struck speechless.

BlackTailmon took it from there.

"Allow me to translate." She said, flexing her claws. "You're nothing. You're an X Digimon in a world that hates you. You're hunted by Yggdrasil. You're just lucky enough not to have been caught yet, because you're so weak nobody cares. They have bigger things to worry about; Adults, Perfects, and Ultimates. I could kill you right now and nobody would mourn, because nobody would even care."

The claws moved closer to the Dinosaur's eyes.

Takato's voice slid in smoothly, as if they'd rehearsed this.

"But we're all reasonable people here. If you tell us what we want, we'll let you go. So how about it? Feel like talking yet?"

The Agumon looked at him silently for a moment, before looking at the ground.

"The Urd Terminal." He spat.

Takato had no idea what he was talking about but didn't show it.

"That wasn't so hard was it? How do you get to the Urd Terminal?"

Takato listened carefully as Agumon rattled off a few vague details. Go northeast until you hit the road, follow it until you reach the city it leads to, and use the Chronicle Layer System.

He listened closely, committing them to memory, but…

He had no idea what he was talking about.

Time to change that.

"What is the Urd Terminal?" He asked, after he was sure the X Digimon was finished. He had waited to asked, just in case. He didn't want the Agumon to have a bargaining chip, after all.

Now, even if he clammed up or tried something funny, they could dispose of him and check for themselves.

Agumon stared at him like he'd grown another head. He didn't say anything until Takato nodded at his partner, who growled and pressed her claws a little bit closer.

"Wait, wait, just…I'll tell you! It's just…you don't know?" He asked.

The Tamer stared at him impassively.

"Are you…you're new." The Digimon decided. Takato hummed noncommittally. "You must be if you don't know."

Takato shifted his eyes to his partner again and the Agumon must have seen him because he started talking.

"This world has three Terminals; Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld. Past, Present, and Future. This is the Verdandi Terminal; Skuld is more futuristic while Urd is more primitive. The layouts of all the Terminals are the same, geographically, but it's like huge amounts of time passed between them."

Takato frowned.

"And the Chronicle Layer System?"

"Is the only way of traveling between them."

He nodded in understanding.

"Is something wrong with the Urd Terminal that made you come here?" He asked. He needed to know this before he made any plans for going there.

Agumon shook his head.

"It's no different than usual, but I'd rather be in the Verdandi Terminal."

"Why?"

"Each Terminal has their own advantages and disadvantages. Urd is the farthest from Yggdrasil's sight and is the safest for X Digimon in a way…but it's also a region of volcanoes and jungles, full of some of the strongest Digimon around. Skuld is almost completely urbanized and is safe because of it; things like injuries and sicknesses are basically non-existent there…But Yggdrasil is impossible to hide from there."

"And this Terminal is safe geographically and not constantly monitored?" Takato guessed.

Agumon nodded.

Takato's eyes flickered towards his partner, wondering what she thought of this. Their eyes met before she looked back at Agumon.

Takato understood without being told.

Keep asking questions; we'll talk later.

"One last question and we'll let you go. Where are you heading now, Agumon?" He asked.

Agumon hesitated. He obviously didn't want to meet either of them again.

But not as much as he wanted to be away from them right now.

"I heard there's a town nearby." He said. "One that's safe for X Digimon."

Takato looked at him, feeling the bottom drop out of his stomach.

He knew what he was talking about.

"The one back that way?" He asked, pointing in the direction they'd come from.

Agumon nodded slowly and he closed his eyes. He was silent for a moment.

"Yggdrasil found it. It's gone now. I'm sorry." He told the Digimon, standing up. "You're free to go now, Agumon. Thanks for the information. Let's go, BlackTailmon."

The catlike Digimon climbed up the length of his body to rest on his shoulders.

He was surprised when she spoke up.

"If you reach the forest, it should be fine to rest for a few days. Everyone that works for Yggdrasil there is dead and nobody will come to check for a while…probably." She said.

Agumon, who'd stood and was about to scamper off, paused and looked back.

"What happened to them?"

BlackTailmon gave him a catlike smile.

"Someone killed them all."

Agumon ducked away at that and they watched him until he was out of sight. Which, grant, wasn't far in the light of the Digivice.

They looked at each other afterwards.

"What do you think? Should we try it?" He asked, partially to her, partially to himself.

"It's not like we have anywhere else to be."

Takato conceded that point.

"If nothing else, there's supposed to be a town by the Chronicle Layer System, too." He mused.

"Let's go, then."

**XxXXxX**

They ghosted into town on a windy day.

Takato vaguely wished he had a cloak or a cape to bellow dramatically in the wind, but he didn't voice it out loud.

They didn't attract too many looks, thankfully; BlackTailmon's ability to hypnotize was shining through. Otherwise, he'd have stood out like a sore thumb, being a human and all.

"Nice place." He commented absently. "Ironstone City, huh?"

The proximity to the Chronic Layer System must have affected the geography or something, he decided. Either that, or this was another weird area of the Digital World.

Either way, the name was fitting; there weren't any rocks or stones anywhere within about five miles of the city. It was all metal; rock-shaped iron, steel roads, brass grass, and so on. Even the river nearby seemed to have been made out of liquid metal, though it had turned back into normal water at the boundary of the area.

His partner nodded silently; she didn't talk much when she was hypnotizing. It must have taken a lot of concentration. Or maybe she just didn't like crowds.

He entertained that thought for a while. It would make since; her history with groups of other Digimon wasn't exactly the best. Still, it would be insensitive of him to ask such things, so he kept those thoughts to himself for now.

Instead, Takato chose to look around at the signs and landmarks in the area. The path to the Chronic Layer System was well marked, but that wasn't what he was looking for. They'd need to leave before too long; BlackTailmon couldn't keep people from noticing them forever. But before they left…

"Let's hang around here for a while, BlackTailmon. It's your first time in a real city, right?" He asked. "It's been awhile for me, too. We can go buy ourselves some real food and stay the night somewhere."

"…We don't have any money…"

Takato nodded at that, still searching the area.

"Yeah, but we're in a city now. I'm sure there's a way for us to make money around here somewhere – Hello." He said, stopping as he saw a sign.

He glanced at his partner as he got some ideas.

"Hey, BlackTailmon…do you mind using those eyes of yours to help me gamble a bit." He asked, changing directions.

She stood still for a minute, gazing at his back incredulously.

"…What's gambling?" She asked after catching up.

Takato pondered that for a minute, thinking of how to best answer. He decided to just go with the definition of the word.

"It's the wagering of money on an event with an uncertain outcome. A game of luck, basically. If you win, you get more money back." He said.

"But we don't have any money in the first place. And if it's a game of luck, how are we going to win?"

Takato smiled and patted her on the head.

"I'm pretty lucky." He said. "Besides, I have no intention of playing fair. Have you ever heard that old superstition of black cats?"

She shook her head.

"Remind me to tell you later. For now, feel up for some more hypnosis?"

**XxXXxX**

Less than an hour later, Takato lounged comfortably in his chair at the table. BlackTailmon rested in his lap and he gently stroked her fur. She purred like the kitten she was.

Nobody seemed to notice. Not her presence, not the sounds she was making, not even her actions were noticed. They also didn't seem to notice that they were playing at the same table as a human.

Takato wondered what they actually saw. They were aware he was there, obviously; he was getting dealt cards and they responded to him. But they didn't seem to notice who or what he was.

But more than that, they didn't notice that they were cheating like motherfuckers.

BlackTailmon took looks at the other players cards, people with good hands mysteriously chose to fold, his bluffs always worked, people with bad hands would wager surprising amounts. Confidence and foolishness seemed to abound at this table.

Which was why they were raking in cash. Takato had enough at this point to stand up and walk away. Point of fact, he had enough to do that most of an hour ago. At this point, he was going to have to do something just because carrying around this much hard cash would be annoying.

Maybe they should have a night on the town? That sounded like a good idea. He'd take BlackTailmon to the most expensive restaurant in town and eat until they were stuffed and then go to the best hotel for the night.

He absently wondered if BlackTailmon had ever actually had a meal that she didn't have to hunt herself. Or if she'd ever slept in an actual bed.

He doubted it.

Well, he had cooked for her since he'd met her, but it wasn't really the same. It didn't matter, he supposed. It would change tonight, after all.

But it would have to wait. He could get up and leave and he would shortly.

But he had one more reason to be here.

Information gathering.

Between his partner's Cat's Eye and their own desire to keep him playing in the hopes of winning back their money, the others at the table had been feeling chatty.

Most of it was of dubious usefulness to him; the economy of Ironstone, the recent actions of X Digimon, Yggdrasil's responses, etc.

But every once in a while…

"Have you heard about the Royal Knights?" A Starmon asked, looking at his cards.

Takato had no idea what he was talking about, so he listened vaguely as he put forth a modest bet. It wouldn't matter even if he lost it – and he wasn't going to.

"Which ones?" He asked absently, guessing there were a number of them based on the plural.

"They're hunting a _human_." Starmon said, whispering conspiratorially.

Takato froze but quickly forced himself to relax. It was unlikely anyone would notice through the hypnosis, but…

BlackTailmon, on the other hand, stiffened noticeably and stayed that way until Takato began messaging the muscles on her side. She relaxed slowly; she loved it when he did that.

"A human? Here?" Gottsumon asked.

"There haven't been humans here since the Tamers!" The higher leveled but nearly identical Icemon added.

Starmon probably would have smirked if he had a mouth.

"That's what makes it so interesting. The ones doing the hunting are Sleipmon and…Dukemon." He said, as if he was revealing the greatest secret in the world.

As far as Takato was concerned, he was.

The hand that was messaging BlackTailmon stopped moving. His entire body stopped moving. He gasped so loudly he probably would have drawn every eye in the room if not for his partner's eyes. And the only reason he was able to keep from making an extremely embarrassing noise was the fact that, for some reason, he couldn't make any noises at all.

Nobody made any signs of noticing except BlackTailmon. She looked up at his with concerned yellow eyes.

He worked his jaw a few times, but still couldn't speak. Instead, he took a deep breath, and let his poker face fall over him. He smiled down at BlackTailmon with a reassurance he did not feel before looking Starmon.

"Is that so?" He said, calmly. Or he tried to, at least. It came out kind of chocked.

Even so, Starmon didn't notice.

He made a note to himself. He was definitely taking BlackTailmon for a night on the town. She deserved it.

He paused for a moment to clear his throat and tried again.

"You know, I've been around. And I heard…" He paused again, unsure. This was risky. This was _really_ risky. They apparently knew about the Tamers, but how much did they know? If what he was about to say was something he shouldn't know…he could ruin everything.

His resolve hardened. It didn't matter. It ashamed him to admit it, it made him feel like a monster, but…these Digimon? These innocent gamblers?

He would _kill_ them for this information, if that's what it took.

"I heard that there was a Dukemon among the Tamers. Partnered to one, I mean." He said his voice now much firmer.

He removed his hand from BlackTailmon, getting out of her way, just in case. She understood; whether from what he said or his actions, she understood. She tensed, ready to lunge at any moment.

Takato looked around the table.

This was the moment of truth. Whether they lived or died…whether he would _let_ them live or kill them…

It would be decided by their reactions.

Starmon nodded enthusiastically.

"That's what I heard, too!" he said excitedly.

It saved his life.

He put his hand back on BlackTailmon and she relaxed again.

"Do you think the human he's looking for is his partner?" Icemon asked, just as excited.

Gottsumon shook his head.

"What are the odds of that?"

"Yeah." Takato said. "What are the odds?"

They continued playing. They went on for another hour before Icemon and Gottsumon left. Takato apologized to Starmon as they did, saying he had to leave himself. He stood and left calmly, not the first to leave and not the last.

But he left without as much as a second glance.

He had things to do.

**XxXXxX**

"Takato…" BlackTailmon began. "Are you okay?"

"Hm?" Takato asked, turning towards her. He'd been looking out the window of the restaurant. He was keeping his word; they were in the fanciest restaurant in town, not to mention the fanciest restaurant Takato had ever been in.

The food, of literally every type on the menu that either he or BlackTailmon had found even remotely interesting, was piled on the table. There was no way they'd be able to eat it all, but BlackTailmon seemed willing to try, and was inhaling food like she'd never eaten before.

Takato tried to chuckle at his friends antics, but he couldn't. Instead, he absentmindedly picked at his food while looking out the window.

He was lost in thought until his partner voiced her concerns.

"Ah…" He said, understanding after a short pause. "…Not really."

He didn't bother lying. He didn't even bother trying. He wasn't one to keep things from his friends, and he'd learnt that having others to help bare burdens made things easier.

He liked to think BlackTailmon would do the same if their situations were reversed.

"What's wrong?" She asked. "Is it about that Dukemon guy they told us about?"

Takato nodded.

"Dukemon is…the one I'm looking for."

BlackTailmon blinked, confused.

"Then, this is a good thing, right?"

He gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

"I'm happy." He said and it was true. "I'm happy to know my friend is alive. Don't get me wrong; my first instinct was to run off to find him. But…it seems things are a bit more complicated than that."

She'd stopped eating to listen.

"How so?"

"What are the Royal Knights?" Takato asked, not expecting an answer and not getting one. "They seem to be a group, or an organization, or something. Whatever they are, however, one thing is for sure; Dukemon's a member. But what does that mean? Are they an army? A politically party? A professional baseball team? What?"

He looked out the window again when BlackTailmon didn't reply.

"And who is Sleipmon? He's partnered with Dukemon, but…I don't know a 'Sleipmon.' He's probably not one of the others, even taking into account whatever made Guilmon evolve."

"What?" BlackTailmon asked, confused by that statement. Both parts of it.

Takato looked back towards her and elaborated.

"The one I'm looking for was my partner Guilmon. He is…was a Child level Digimon. Dukemon is his Ultimate form."

Her eyes went wide.

"Ultamate? He was able to go Ultimate?" She asked, amazed.

Takato chuckled.

"Don't look so impressed; you're strong and you'll get even stronger. He and I were able to get to Ultimate together…there's no reason you and I can't do the same." He said.

She nodded resolvedly.

"But…the last time I saw him, he'd been reduced to Baby level…" Takato continued. "…Have I really been gone so long?"

Takato's eyes became a bit sad. BlackTailmon saw it and quickly changed the subject.

"What about the others you mentioned?" She asked, referring to the other thing that confused her.

Takato noticed the change and went along with it gratefully.

"We weren't alone." He said. "Back when Guilmon was with me, we had a lot of friends…we were called Tamers; humans bonded to Digimon. If I heard that Dukemon was running around with someone, I'd figure it'd be Renamon or Terriermon. But…Sleipmon isn't an evolution of either of them, that I know of. Unless they have an alternate evolution path I don't know about…"

He lowered his eyes.

"Did something happen to the others?" He asked, more to himself than anyone else.

"Maybe it's a different Dukemon?" BlackTailmon suggested.

Takato shook his head immediately, before pausing a moment. He then shook his head a bit more slowly.

"I want to say that's impossible, but I know better than to say something like that when the Digital World is involved. However, I don't think so. There's only one Guilmon."

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but she still wanted to know.

"Why?"

"Because I created him." Takato said casually. "He's one of a kind."

She stared silently at him. This conversation was going to make her reevaluate her partner; Ultimate Digimon, creating life…she wondered if she should ask about his history.

She resolved to do so later. But in the meantime…

"Hey, Takato?"

"Hm?" He asked, slowly taking a sip of his drink.

"What do you think my Ultimate form will be like?" She asked, dreamily. "I bet I'll be the most beautiful woman in the entire Digital World."

Takato, aware of how Tamers evolve to Ultimate and what that would entail on his side of things, promptly choked.

**XxXXxX**

Takato opened his eyes and glanced at the clock.

2 AM.

It was nice to have a clock that worked for once, he thought, getting up.

It was early. Really early. Pretty much everyone would be asleep for hours yet.

Just as they'd planned.

"BlackTailmon." He asked softly. There was no need to raise his voice; she could hear him from the other side of the room even if he whispered.

He heard a groan.

"I'm up. Is it time already?" She asked.

He nodded in the dark. He couldn't see her, partially because of the lack of light and partially because of the color of her fur, but she could see him just fine.

The eyes of a cat, he mused as a weight, his partner's weight, settled on his shoulders.

"Since you can see in the dark, I need you to be on the lookout. If you see anything suspicious, tell me."

"Of course."

"Then let's go."

They left the room and hotel together. Takato had to walk slowly in the dark hallways of the hotel, and BlackTailmon had been forced to murmur warnings several times to keep him from bumping into anything, but it became easier after they left the building.

Takato was thankful that the fact that the Digital Representation of the Real World hung in the night sky as he made his way through the streets. It wasn't much, but it was enough for him to see by. He wouldn't bet on his ability to make out fine details or distant objects, but hopefully he wouldn't have too.

He didn't even need to glance at the signs around him; he'd memorized the path during the daylight.

Nonetheless, he made his way through the streets carefully, just in case. He didn't want anything to go wrong now. Not when they were this close.

And so, it ended up taking nearly half an hour to get to the Chronic Layer System. They stopped a corner away from it.

Takato didn't look around it, though he wanted to. He didn't trust his eyes to notice anything important in the dark, even with the light of the Real World overhead.

He left that to BlackTailmon.

"Three guards. Guardromon, all of them." She whispered after about twenty seconds of scanning the area.

Takato bit his lip.

"Two less than during the daytime. Is that Knightmon gone?" He said, referring to the Perfect that had also been on guard duty.

"Yes. But he could be inside."

Takato nodded.

The point of coming during the night was that, hopefully, it would reduce the number of Guards. Specifically, the Perfect level guards. He had faith in his partner, but due to the short notice on which he'd been dragged into the Digital World, he didn't have any cards with him.

It wouldn't be an issue if they could go in the normal way, but that was impossible for them.

The guards carefully noted and identified everyone who entered and exited the Chronic Layer System, probably because of recent trouble with X Digimon going through. With the Royal Knights after them, Takato wasn't sure he wanted to be remembered. He'd debated heavily whether or not to do so in the hopes that it would lead Dukemon his way, but…

He needed more information first.

And he knew where to get it, too. A number of X Digimon were said to be camping out in the Urd Terminal. If anyone would know what was going on, they would. They'd need to, if they wanted to survive.

He just had to get there.

"BlackTailmon…is this your first time breaking and entering?" He asked.

She looked at him like he was insane.

"Me, too. Let's go."

**XxXXxX**

Takato was left feeling a bit put out as they walked through the front door. BlackTailmon had hypnotized the guards and they were now ignoring them.

It was the best way to do it, causing the least amount of fuss. Point of fact, he'd been the one to tell her to do it.

Still, this was kind of anticlimactic.

"If this is really one of the few passages between a World filled with X Digimon and a World X Digimon want to get into, shouldn't it be better guarded?" Takato asked his partner, feeling disappointed.

"I agree." A new voice said.

Knightmon.

"Oh, thank God. I was worried for a second there that the Universe _wasn't_ conspiring against me. It would ruin my persecution complex." Takato said calmly. "BlackTailmon, can you deal with a higher level Digimon for, oh, five minutes?"

"I can try." She said, jumping from his shoulder.

"Groovy." He said, dismissing Knightmon entirely and walking forward.

He didn't even react when a large armored hand interposed itself in his way.

"And where do you think _you're_ going-"

A small black blur slammed into the larger Digimon and, despite his size, picked him up and smashed him through a wall.

Takato waved as he walked past the hole in the wall.

"See you in a few minutes, BlackTailmon. I'm gonna go start up the Chronic Layer System, m'kay?"

"Okay, I'll be there in a little bit." A voice drifted through the hole.

**XxXXxX**

"So you're after the Chronic Layer System." Knightmon growled.

"Of course." She said dismissively. "Why else would we be here?"

"It'll do you no good." He spat. "Don't think just anyone can activate it. You need-"

"Three passwords and either a Master Key or five different Lesser Keys. We know. Let's just say your Guards were feeling chatty after I hypnotized them." She finished for him with a catlike smile. "We already know where the Lesser Keys are and the Guards outside gave us the passwords. But…"

She flexed her claws.

"According to the guards outside, a Master Key works on all of the Chronic Layer Systems. Anyone who has one can move freely between Worlds as long as he has access to a gate. Is that true?"

Knightmon stiffened. The guards weren't supposed to know that. Their enemies were especially not supposed to know that.

"And what if it is?"

"If it is…" She lifted her eyes to look at his face and her smile widened. "Then I'm betting you have it."

"You'll have to kill me if you want it."

She nodded good-naturedly.

"That was the idea, yes."

BlackTailmon lunged forward and Knightmon reacted quickly.

**XxXXxX**

Takato finished typing in the last password.

Now there was nothing to do but wait.

He knew where the Lesser Keys were, but didn't bother getting them. He was well aware of BlackTailmon's intentions; she hadn't told him anything, but he could see it in her eyes.

And…

He would believe in her.

He'd believe that even against a higher level Digimon, she'd be victorious.

But…

He clinched his hands into fists, hating not for the first time the fact that he didn't have any cards on him. If he did, he could at least help her fight.

After a minute, he sighed and forced himself to relax.

There was no point brooding over what-if's.

**XxXXxX**

"Berserk Sword!" Knightmon cried as he brought his sword into a mighty swing, slashing through the area BlackTailmon—

Was no longer in.

He glanced upward and glared at the black cat. She'd jumped up onto the railing and lazily strolling across it, smiling smugly down at him.

"Electric Slash!" He decided to change tactics.

His Berserk Sword surged with electricity and BlackTailmon suddenly felt her hair bristle in warning.

She immediately jumped away, which was the only thing that saved her life, for mere moments later a lightning bolt struck where she had once stood.

She abruptly hissed at Knightmon, no longer smug or amused.

"Neko Punch!" She attacked in retaliation, falling down upon Knightmon like black lightning.

Knightmon quickly reacted, bringing his Sword to block and though it kept the attack from connecting, the floor around his feet cracked at the impact.

_That_ made Knightmon's eyes widen.

But BlackTailmon wasn't done yet. She grabbed the side of the blade with her other hand, being careful not to cut herself. And then, like an expert gymnast, she swung herself past his guard and pushed off into a kick.

"Neko Kick!"

The attack connected with Knightmon's chest and sent him skidding backwards across the floor.

But BlackTailmon had the advantage now and she had every intention of pressing it. She spun in midair, launching another attack.

"Cat Tail!"

Her tail was more like a whip as it took Knightmon across the face and knocked his helmet off, revealing…!

BlackTailmon suddenly faltered.

There was nothing inside the Armor.

"My…" The decapitated helmet said, nearly making BlackTailmon jump out of her skin. "It seems I have the disadvantage due to your superior mobility. But…"

The rest of Knightmon's body began to fall apart into individual pieces. Arms, legs, his shield, his three swords…they all separated and-

BlackTailmon leapt away as the flying blade nearly impaled her.

And each piece levitated in the air and moved as if it had a mind of its own.

"…That alone isn't enough to win against me."

BlackTailmon quickly recovered, putting on a calm face. She had to admit she was a bit shaken, though; this was unexpected.

"Hm…perhaps you're right. It looks like you won't go down easily." She said with a fake sad sigh.

Her face quickly shifted into a smirk, however.

"But you'll still go down."

Two swords impaled the spot she'd been standing on, but she was already in the air. The third sword was already sailing at her, trying to take advantage of her inability to dodge.

Just as she'd expected.

Her tail lashed out, grabbing the railing of the above level. It twisted around it like a snake, pulling her towards it. Her feet made contact with it just in time for her to immediately leap into a dodge, this time jumping down to the lower level.

The two swords that had first attacked her were already withdrawing from the floor; she quickly had to get past them. She jumped, landing on the hilt of one and bounding to the hilt of the second a moment later, landing on the ground past them in a run.

Her first target was the head of Knightmon. Even if his suit was apparently empty, he was still a Digimon. Logic dictated that if he wasn't an Undead type, he would have a Digital Core. All Digimon have two weaknesses; that is, there are two ways to kill them. Cause them enormous physical damage or destroy that Core. The second, as it's usually held within a Digimon's body, is generally only possible by accomplishing the first.

But…

If Knightmon's split his body into all these pieces and these pieces were acting independently, logically, his Digital Core must be controlling them. In addition, it was almost certainly held within his body or at least a part of it, as only a few Digimon had external Cores—and even then, they were generally pretty obvious.

The head wasn't necessarily the correct spot; theoretically, it could be anywhere. However, there are generally two locations that the Core is held; the chest cavity and the head. The Chest is more likely, but it's also more heavily armored, which only supports that it's a safer place to hold the Core. The head is less likely…

But it was as good a place as any to start with. Perhaps she'd luck out and it was in the easier place; then she could destroy it without having to rag on that chest plate.

"Neko Punch!"

Her fist connected hard enough to dent the armor of his forehead, as well as smashing it away from her. However, a second later, she had to back flip over two incoming arms, which put her in a position where she had to dodge to the side in order to avoid the boot that came down like a hammer from above.

She stayed focused on her target through it all, eyes on the prize.

She ran for the head again, jumping to land on the back of one of Knightmon's hands, using it as a spring board to flip over an incoming boot, and turning that flip into a kick, smashing it directly into Knightmon's head again.

"Ugh." The disembodied head grunted.

BlackTailmon ignored it in favor of following up with a Neko Punch-Cat Tail combo. But through it all, she wondered about something she thought was strange.

Punches and kicks are nice and good, but aren't swords preferable if you have them? Then where are Knightmon's?

She didn't even have a chance to look around before Knightmon began his attack.

"Electric Slash!" He said.

BlackTailmon's body was in motion by the time he finished the word 'Electric.'

Her tail lashed out, grabbing Knightmon's head. She pulled it into her former position as she leapt away. She quickly bounded from the back of Knightmon's hand, flipped over his chest armor, and land by his shield which she quickly pulled over herself. She had to resist it as it tried to crush her the moment it realized what she was doing, but it was still a safer place then being out in the open.

From under the safety of the Shield, she saw as Knightmon's own head was destroyed even is the lightning blinded her.

For a moment, everything was dark, but her ears twitched as they heard something.

She rolled out from under the shield as it fell with a thunderous crash, something, or several something's, impacting it was great force.

The other pieces of Knightmon's armor.

Damn. It wasn't in his head, after all.

She blinked quickly as her sight began to return to her.

As it did, she almost wished it hadn't.

The data from Knightmon's head quickly began to swirl in the air, taking shape in seconds. A moment later, it was as good as new and her enemy was staring down at her with the calm blue eyes of a judge.

"A valiant effort." Knightmon granted. "But no less futile. Electric Slash!"

This time BlackTailmon wasn't able to dodge and the attack hit her before she could react. The lightning bolt seared her, the current clawing through her body, setting her nerves on fire. She may have screamed, but she wasn't sure; the crash of thunder seemed to have deafened her.

Shit. This wasn't good.

Her mind raced as she tried to think logically.

Wait…

She'd been hit by an attack. Singular. But…there were three swords placed around the area, weren't there? Every time she'd been attacked previously, it had been by three different bolts of lightning and she'd only been able to dodge by moving before the attack occurred. But this time…

There had been only one.

Why?

BlackTailmon leapt to her feet even though her body didn't seem to want to respond. It hurt, but staying in one place could be fatal. Especially since she was currently handicapped.

She'd lost her sense of hearing, the sense that allowed her to dodge up to this point. She'd heard Knightmon vocalize his attack and had reacted before it had finished. However, without her hearing, she couldn't do that and since Knightmon had no visible mouth, she couldn't read his lips, either.

So she'd just have to rely on her other senses instead.

She focused on a vague sensation she'd felt before. Every time Knightmon had used that attack, the charge in the air changed as a result. In addition, there was always a change in temperature and the movement of the air.

She sniffed the air slightly. Yes, there was a change in that as well; the smell of ozone.

She could tell when one of the attacks was coming this way; she was sure of it.

But…

Could she dodge? Could she dodge three different attacks from three different directions?

She couldn't be sure of it.

She needed to, at the very least, narrow down the number of attacks.

Where are they coming from?

Her fur lifted suddenly. Yes, there was an attack coming from the-

Right? Left?

No, both!

She dove forward, turned it into a roll, and up ended back on her feet in a dead sprint.

That time there had only been two attacks. Why not three? They'd come from the left and right at angles, so-

There and there! She noted their location and began to form a hypothesis.

For an attack that moves in a straight line, within the confines of a room with various obstacles and object, there are only a certain number of angles from which one can hit a target from any one position.

BlackTailmon did some quick calculations.

Those two blades, from their current position, shouldn't be able to reach her if she moved right…there!

She rolled for cover beside a staircase.

Those two blades couldn't reach her for the moment; they'd need to move and readjust their aim which should take a few seconds. She took advantage of her time to find the third blade.

There – the blades were set in a triangular pattern; theoretically, at least one should be able to hit her where ever she was in this room.

But that doesn't take into account the numerous pieces of armor floating in the air, now does it?

Could Knightmon keep track of all those pieces, the firing angles of the swords, and where they overlapped?

More importantly…

Could she?

BlackTailmon tilted her head to the side, cracking it.

Only one way to find out.

She leapt back into the fray. She landed with Knightmon's chest plate between her and the blade she knew the location of. She glanced over her shoulder to determine the location of the other two, noting them. She grabbed the chest plate, threw it towards her desired location, and followed after it. The Chest plate would defend against two swords in this position, her position on the wall would protect from the third. Their location would change in seconds, but she wasn't immediately struck down, so it seemed to work.

Knightmon's fists pounded the armor while the chest plate tried to crush her. Her arms hurt from the strain.

She ignored it.

Now that she had a moment to think, she could address her main problem.

While the swords would have been immediately lethal if she hadn't dealt with them, this problem was no less dangerous; it would merely take slightly longer to kill her.

Knightmon's head had reformed. What did that mean?

She quickly went through the possible options.

Knightmon was invincible and she was dead. This option sucked. Next.

Knightmon can not only separate and reform his pieces of armor; he can do the same to pieces of data. This still sucked. But if so…

Was there a restriction on it?

What if she was right? She'd thought that the head was a bust because that was not where his Digital Core was held. What if she had been correct in that assumption?

She'd thought that his ability to separate and manipulate the pieces of his armor was controlled by his Core. Assuming that is true and assuming his ability to recombine his own data was a part of the same ability then it stood to reason that his data manipulation ability was also controlled by his Digital Core.

If so, then the only way to defeat Knightmon is by finding and destroying his Digital Core.

She'd originally deduced that the most likely location of that Core would be inside-

The Chest piece she was currently holding.

A catlike grin stretched over her face.

If she was correct, then the easiest way to prove it would be to put herself in the line of fire and see what happened.

There were several glaring problems with that, however. Namely what would happen if she was wrong…

If she was wrong, Knightmon could simply destroy his chest piece to attack her. The result would only benefit him; BlackTailmon would almost certainly be injured by such an attack. In fact, the probability of her deletion was fairly high.

Knightmon, on the other hand, had nothing to fear. Even if he obliterated it completely, it wouldn't affect him personally; he could simply put it back together from the spare data.

BlackTailmon had to swallow at that.

But if she was right…!

If she was right, this move could win her the fight. All the information she currently had at her disposal lead her to believe that she was correct; if it wasn't in the head, then it had to be here!

But what if she was wrong? Should she bet her life on it?

She could try to find another way; if she tried to destroy the armor herself…!

No. If she did that and was wrong, the result would be the same. If she did that and was right, then Knightmon might take drastic measures. She couldn't rule out that he might be willing to take her down with him.

Before she could come up with anything else, first she had to confirm whether or not she was correct. Both of the ways she had to do that could end in her death if she was wrong, but if she didn't do _something_, then…

Damned if you do…

Damned if you don't…

In that case, she might as well just do it and earn it, right?

So she took a deep breath and jumped back into the fray.

She wasn't stupid, though; she didn't intend to bet everything on this one chance. She put herself in a position where she was protected from one of the swords by virtue of her position. That still left the threat of two more, but…

If she was right, then it wouldn't be an issue. If she was wrong, then she was, hopefully, somewhat less screwed then she would be otherwise. Maybe the Armor would take most of the blow?

Unlikely, since the weapon being used was electricity, but it shouldn't be as bad as taking the blow head on, at least.

For a moment, everything was quiet. But then, her hearing was still shot, so who knew what that meant.

But even so, for a moment, she let herself dare to hope.

Was she right? Maybe she was! Maybe she could-

A blast of electricity deleted the armor in an instant. The current didn't even have time to flow through it and shock BlackTailmon.

She didn't even have time to register the fact that she should be surprised before the rest of the attack plowed into her.

All she could think about was one thing.

She was wrong.

Damn it, she was wrong.

But then…where?

Where was his Digital Core?

Or was he really-

No. She refused to accept that her opponent was invincible.

There had to be a way to defeat him. She just had to find it.

But even if she did…

What could she do now?

And then a sliver of hope found its way to her in the form of a voice, but with it came a feeling of pain and fear that struck her to the bone.

"The Shield!" A familiar voice shouted, barely audible to her slowly recovering ears. "It's in his shield!"

That voice…

She knew it, though she tried to convince herself it couldn't be.

Please don't let him be stupid enough to have come back.

She forced herself to open her eyes and regretted it.

Her partner had come back for her.

You idiot, she thought.

"Why didn't you escape?" She asked weakly. If she was a little stronger she would have added 'you dumbass.' "If you realized I was losing…you should have run."

Her Tamer hastened down the stairs to her side. Knightmon didn't stop him.

BlackTailmon wondered if it was because he was surprised by the human's idiocy, respectful of his courage, or if he simply found it more convenient to kill them if they were both in the same place.

"I couldn't. Not without you." He said. "If you can't run, then I can't either."

She spat out a bit of blood that exploded into data before it hit the ground.

"I couldn't run even if I wanted to." She said. "All you've done is ensured that both of us die."

"If that's how it has to be." He replied. "I can't do anything myself, but even so, I believe in you. Even if I'm too weak to do anything else, I believe in you."

"I lost." She hissed, angry at him, but not as angry as she was at herself.

"Even so, I still believe. I had a choice. I could have left by myself or I could have come back here for you. And I'm here. And I haven't given up."

"I have." She stated. "So do me a favor and run while you still can."

Takato just laughed. Even though she put all the venom she could muster into those words, he brushed them off as if they were nothing.

"Even now, when it looks like it's over," He began, smiling down at her without a hint of pain or sadness. "You are worried only about me. You didn't ask me to save you, even though you knew you'd die if someone didn't."

She tried to look away, but it hurt too much to move so she settled for glaring at him instead.

"If I asked an idiot like you for help, you'd probably come even if there was nothing you could do, so…more than anything, I absolutely do not want your help."

Takato simply laughed at that.

"Are you finished saying your goodbyes?" Knightmon asked. BlackTailmon noticed that his swords were in position to catch them in the crossfire. If it was just her, maybe she could dodge, but Takato's body was too large and slow.

Oh, who was she kidding? She couldn't dodge in this state, even if she wanted too.

"Wait." Takato spoke up. "I heard that several of the Royal Knights were looking for us. A Human and a Plotmon, right?"

Knightmon hesitated.

"And so what." He said, recovering. "Your partner isn't a Plotmon."

"Not anymore, she's not. But she was before she evolved."

Knightmon would have frowned if he had a mouth.

"I think you're just trying to save your hides."

"True." Takato agreed. "But that doesn't mean I'm lying."

Knightmon was silent for a moment.

"Lord Dukemon asked around before." He then said and Takato's heart began to clinch at his words. "And…he was only interested in the human. Whether you are or aren't the one he's after…there's still no reason to leave the BlackTailmon alive. Get out of the way and I'll spare you for now, human."

Takato sighed, half expecting that.

"Sorry; no can do. I'm not moving."

Knightmon lapsed back into silence again before the pieces of his armor made a strange movement.

If he wasn't in pieces, it might have been a shrug.

"Then my duty is clear. I can only hope he won't be too upset. Electric Slash!"

Takato threw himself over BlackTailmon. The small Digimon would have pointed out how stupid that was if she hadn't had the air crushed out of her lungs. Against three Perfect level attacks, it just meant that both of them would die.

Until he pushed her away at the last second, sending her out of the line of fire.

Her eyes widened and she had just enough time to think 'Takato, you fucking idiot' before the impact with the floor drove it away. He'd done nothing but buy her a few seconds; she couldn't move so Knightmon could just kill her next. He had to know this, so why…why…why did he always have to be such an idiot!?

Takato's Digivice glowed as the light from the lightning found itself swallowed by a darkness that was absolute.

"Really. Why do you have to cause so much trouble for me?" BlackTailmon said, visible for a moment against the black background before she too was swallowed by it.

"BlackTailmon, shinka!"

A sudden whirlwind of bats protected Takato from harm. The lightning bolts destroyed every bat they came into contact with, but there were just so many that they dissipated before they got through.

Takato suddenly felt himself being picked up and started in surprise when he saw who was doing it.

She was mostly covered in a black body suit, the many stitches on it easily visible. The suit was cut off mid-thigh on her left leg, revealing a wide expanse of pale flesh stretching all the way down to her boot which had a red, bat-like shape imprinted on it. Her right leg was completely covered, but had two mouth-like shapes on it; one on her shoe with the mouth along the edge and the other on her knee. Red eyes glared out from above both. The cloth on her left arm was torn as well, but it hung in the air, revealing another face-like shape, this one with a clawed appendage attached to it. It was pierced by a chain, one which wrapped around her waist, stretched to her right arm, wrapped around it a number of times, and then fell to wrap her right leg as well. Her left arm was much larger than her normal looking right one, ending with an enormous hand with blood-red claws. He tattered, cape-like wings flared behind her, bearing her aloft impossibly and a black, helmet-like cloth covered most her face, leaving only her red eyes and her mouth to be seen. Her long, beautiful silver hair fell below her waist, flaring around her as rose through the air in a fashion that somehow manage to convey a noble air.

"LadyDevimon." She finished.

Takato's first thought was 'Wow, she evolved…' His second thought was somewhat more embarrassing: '…and now she's really hot.'

He quickly shook away both his shock and embarrassment, though a blush lingered on his face.

"Thanks for the save, LadyDevimon." He said. "If you hadn't, I'd be dead."

She slapped him then, thankfully with her right hand. Her left hand probably would have taken off his head. Actually, her right hand probably would have, too, if she hadn't held back.

He blinked once, twice, his head having been snapped to the side. Then he looked at her for a minute out of the corner of his eye, not moving his head. He looked silently at her face and saw the emotions written there.

He turned his head towards her fully, then. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers; a feat he was only capable of since she was carrying him bridal style.

"I'm sorry for making you worry." He said.

"You should be! Y-you…! I thought you were going to die again, damn it!"

He nodded, not opening his eyes.

"Me, too." He admitted honestly. "I didn't really think he'd listen to me, but I had to try, just in case I could save you."

"T-then why did you-"

"You said it before, didn't you? That if you asked an idiot like me for help, I'd come even if there was nothing I could do, right? And that's why you didn't want my help. But…because of that, I can't leave you, no matter what. I can't protect you…I can't do anything. I don't have any cards and I can't Matrix Evolve; I can't help you at all. I'm useless to you. But even so, you continue to believe that I will come to save you, no matter what. And because of that, there's another thing I can't do. At the very least, I can't let you down."

She couldn't look at him. So she lifted him further into the air, the storm of bats still around her. In fact, it seemed to be following her, keeping a constant distance. Outside it, Knightmon could be heard attacking; he'd break through eventually.

But she didn't care about that.

"You are…yeah, without a doubt, you are an idiot. But…" She held him a bit tighter then. "I guess I can look passed that, since we're partners."

He chuckled quietly, only opening his eyes when he felt her land.

"Leave." She said, putting a finger on his mouth before he could protest. "It was stupid of you, but…I'm glad you came for me. Even so…leave. I…can handle this now. I'll be fine. Just…wait patiently for me by the Layer System; I'll be along shortly. I just have some unfinished business to deal with."

He lifted a hand to touch her right hand whose finger was on his lips. He held it silently for just a moment before nodding, stepping away. The Storm around them, which was getting thinner and thinner, shifted, forming a tunnel to the door.

LadyDevimon watched him go without a word before narrowing her eyes and glancing behind her.

It was time.

"Electric Slash!"

The three swords had moved so that they could focus on a single point in the wall and their combine power blew a large hole in it, revealing-

Nothing?

"Hmph." A voice from the opposite side of the room said, directly behind the three blades. "Not bad, but your aim is lousy. What were you shooting at?"

Knightmon's disembodied head, the only part of his body with eyes, swung around in midair to see LadyDevimon leaning calmly against the wall. He quickly began to turn his swords around to attack.

"Berserk-"

"Darkness Spear." She said, beating him to it. Her left arm quickly elongated into a spear which she immediately swung.

The three blades shattered before Knightmon's wide eyes.

"Enough." She said. "Your Core is in your shield; I know that now. Give me the Master Key right now or I'll destroy you and take it."

Knightmon quickly recovered, narrowing his eyes.

"Do you think it will be that simple?" He asked. The data of his swords was already putting itself back together, emphasizing his point. "Do you think I'll just let you do as you please?"

The pieces of his armor began to move quickly, turning into a metal whirlwind.

If he was trying to hide from her, it wasn't working. She could follow them with her eyes.

But the shield…

It was being guarded; there were always something between it and her.

Ah. So that was his plan. Turn the shield, the hardest part of his body, into a quickly-moving, protected object. Well, it made sense; it was harder to hit that way and if you did hit it, you'd have to get passed the 'guards' and still be able to hurt the shield. And the 'guards' would quickly regenerate if they were destroyed.

Yes, it made sense.

But that made it no less futile.

"LEVEL: 666." She uttered, a green circle appearing beneath her, drawing itself into the ground. "SYSTEM: ASMODEUS. CODE: LUST."

The symbol was composed by two concentric circles and within the space between them, the words she had spoken were repeated twice. At the bottom of the inner circle, there were other words written: PURGATORY LEVEL: 7. Also within the inner circle was a very special symbol.

Her symbol.

The Crest of Lust.

It drew itself after the circles and words were complete. It started with four separate circles; very small compared to the larger circles but in a row. Then, a short vertical line extended downwards from each circle before all the lines were connected by a longer, horizontal line when they were all of the same length. Finally, the third line from the left continued to extend, though only a small bit. It then formed a fifth circle at the end of its length.

And then, to complete her crest, her Heavenly Body was designated. The Moon, represented by a Crescent Moon above her symbol, drew itself in green light, completing her Crest.

It took mere moments to complete her circle, but she wasn't done yet.

Credit had to be given where credit was due.

"My color is Green, my sin is Lust, the Heavenly Body that watches over me is the Moon, and my spirit is Phul, who rules the waters and the moon; I am Lilithmon of the Seven Great Demon Lords." She said and she knew it was true. She didn't know why she was saying it; she didn't even know what she was saying! But she knew it was _true_.

Knightmon's eyes widened but he didn't even have a chance to speak before LadyDevimon began her attack.

She calculated quickly; his total mass, the mass of each piece, the resistance of the air, the distance, energy needed, direction, and everything else besides.

The key aspect of Lust was 'Attraction,' in a metaphysical sense; desire, craving, want, and much more.

And that was her power, in a literal sense.

Attraction.

She made a gesture, clinching her hand into a fist, and-

Kinghtmon's pieces were crushed together. From all around the room, they were attracted to a single point of her choosing; the exact middle of the room. There was an enormous wave of sound, the impact of metal on metal washing through the room.

She flexed her fingers again, redoing her calculations; it was troublesome, but necessary to use this ability. Now that they were all in one place, it was easier, though.

She increased the force on him to the point that his armor began to dent.

"Last chance." She said. "Give me the Master Key or die."

Knightmon suddenly screamed in rage – or maybe he was just too preoccupied with escaping to form coherent sentences, she wasn't sure.

All the pieces of armor, minus his shield, suddenly exploded into data, confusing her; she hadn't done that. And even if she had, she wouldn't have left behind the shield. If anything, she would have _focused_ on the shield; it was the only piece that really mattered.

But it all made sense a moment later.

The data gather in an instant, recombining into Knightmon's complete form. He must have realized his separated from wouldn't work in the current situation, but why-

Knightmon took a step forward, resisting the pull of the Crest of Lust.

LadyDevimon frowned, wondering if she should just abandon this tactic; in her current state, it was taking a great deal of her processing capacity. She had a great deal more, but if she used any of it, it would likely affect her combat ability.

Wait…actually, she had several auxiliary functions that were constantly active, but weren't useful in battle.

Hm…but was there any point? Rather than abandoning or increasing this method, she could simply attack in addition to it. It didn't matter if Knightmon still had some movement capability; if he was limited to small steps, he was no threat. Even at his normal speed, he was slower than her. That was a better plan.

But in that case…Increasing the power could only help if it would not adversely affect her combat potential.

And more than that…this ability…she needed to know exactly what she could do with it.

She turned off most of the areas that controlled her language ability. Just the part that allowed her to speak properly in several languages; she left her ability to understand those languages unchanged. Who knows? Knightmon might actually say something important. She also set aside a small amount of processing capability to speak her attack names; she might be able to do them silently, but now wasn't the time to experiment with that, too.

Knightmon tried to take another step, but it didn't accomplish anything. As he strode forward a force pulled him back, reducing the distance covered to zero.

"W-what?" He said, straining against the force.

LadyDevimon 'laughed,' if it could be called that. Her language ability controlled more than her verbal abilities; her ability to vocally communicate information in general was controlled by it, including her ability to laugh. Instead of a recognizable laugh, what came out was a series of random sounds.

But her smile was controlled by her movement data and wasn't affected in the slightest.

"Poison." She said, speaking one of the few words she was still capable of forming.

She couldn't ask Knightmon to surrender again without her ability to speak, but…

She had no intention of doing so, anyway.

The red mist expanded quickly from her hand, moving towards Knightmon at surprising speed. Knightmon, his movements still bound, could do nothing but take the attack-

Which…didn't hurt at all?

Instead, it seemed to dye the area it touched, the left side of his chest plate, red. This color quickly began to spread, growing to cover his entire armor like off-color verdigris.

But even when it had covered him completely and stained his body red, it didn't hurt. He was left looking like he'd bathed in blood and it had started to dry, but…it didn't hurt.

Then…what was the point of this technique?

LadyDevimon's smile simply widened and she lifted up on hand. She held up three fingers.

The first fell. In their turn, the second and third followed.

And Knightmon…

Started to scream.

_Now_ it hurt. It hurt in a way he wasn't sure how to describe. It was like his body was tearing itself apart from the inside. Like he'd been infected by a virus set in fast-forward…

Oh, no.

LadyDevimon's strange 'laugh' bubbled up again, and Knightmon, realizing his only real chance of survive was defeating her before this 'Poison' killed him, tried to attack. He fired his Electric Slash, but-

"Darkness Wave!" LadyDevimon countered.

She released countless bat-like creatures from her hand. As an attack, while the individual creatures were weak, there were just so many of them.

But as a defense…

While the creatures were weak, they were still solid. In order to hit LadyDevimon, Knightmon would effectively have to fire through a cloud of thousands of fairly large creatures in the hopes of missing them all and hitting her; for an attack the moved in, more or less, a straight line, that was impossible. The other possibility was to have an attack strong enough to waste its energy on countless creatures and still make it through the storm and hurt LadyDevimon.

Knightmon couldn't do either.

The bats didn't attack, though; they simply shrouded their mistress from view. Why attack? After all, Knightmon's body was killing itself; there was no real need to put themselves in actual physical danger, right?

Knightmon's body shook at the pain, but he wasn't dead yet.

When he reconstructed his armor, he did it by returning their data to a pre-established template. If he reduced himself to data again and returned himself to the state he'd been in prior to the infection of the virus, maybe he could buy himself some time. He couldn't completely cure himself without doing the same to his shield, meaning he couldn't protect his Digital Core, but if he could get even a few more minutes-

But it would leave his shield open for an attack.

Knightmon shook himself.

So what? At this rate, he and his shield were going to be deleted anyway; sure, it was risky, but no more so than doing nothing.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

That thought firmly in mind, he made a backup plan, just in case.

And then his body started to break apart.

As expected, LadyDevimon took this chance to tear through the cloud of bats, her arm already lengthening into a spear.

Knightmon was prepared for that obvious move, though.

It was a simple plan, but if it worked, it worked, right?

His swords that broke into data had been tightly controlled by his will. He had kept them under his power as he had his pieces of armor before them and had organized them carefully.

The data of his swords were organized into the shape _of_ his swords, but still kept as data particles. Even so, a simple effort of will would be enough-

His swords came back into existence.

And they were all aimed at LadyDevimon.

As a surprise attack, it was perfect. It would take her more time to change direction then it would take him to attack, and that was all that mattered.

Though he had no mouth to speak with, electricity surged through his blades. A trio of lightning bolts tore through the air and-

LadyDevimon suddenly accelerated greatly.

All three attacks missed her entirely.

_But how?_ He had time to wonder as she flew through the cloud of data that would never again merge to become Knightmon.

He understood mere moments before LadyDevimon's spear penetrated his Digital Core.

That ability of hers…

Attraction.

When he'd exploded into data, leaving only his shield behind, she must have released it. It didn't matter at that point if he could or couldn't move; his weak point was wide open!

And then she'd used it on herself to increase her own speed.

Damn it.

The Darkness Spear slide through the Crest of Hope imprinted upon his shield as if it were water.

Knightmon knew what that meant. Rather, that could only mean one thing.

I lose, he thought.

And then he thought no more.

**XxXXxX**

LadyDevimon extended her left hand and Knightmon's loose data gathered above it.

She slowly began to absorb it. She wasn't one of the Digimon that was able to load data naturally, though, so she wasn't used to it. She'd have to work on that.

A part of her understood that it was only because of her Crest that this was even possible, but she still didn't understand everything.

What did having the Crest of Lust mean? Why did she have it in the first place? Where were these strange thoughts and memories coming from?

She didn't know.

But…

There would be time to worry about that later.

She continued to slowly absorb the data until only a small part of it was left. This was the potion of Knightmon's data that her senses told her was not 'natural.'

The Master Key.

Truthfully, she had kind of hoped Knightmon would simply give it to her; if he had, this wouldn't be necessary.

But there was no use regretting something she couldn't do anything about.

The data that had once been the Master Key was in so many pieces, but there were parts around the edges that signified where the pieces connected, like a jigsaw puzzle. A really annoying jigsaw puzzle.

She began to piece it together; slowly at first but quickly gaining speed. It became easier the more she completed as the loose data was attracted by the solidified portion and began to nearly put itself back together.

She couldn't just load it like she did Knightmon's data; it wouldn't have accomplished anything. Loading broken data is very useful in its own way, but the information retrieved from it is equally broken. While you can gather power from loose data, you can't really absorb things like memories, as the pieces of data that signify one moment are unconnected to the ones signifying the next. The same goes with the data that creates their techniques; it's useless if you break it into a million pieces.

Just random zeroes and ones.

But if you put ones and zeroes together properly…

The last piece of data merged with the rest, creating a small blue sphere with a barcode ring floating around it.

LadyDevimon laughed. Or tried too; it still came out as a series of garbled sounds.

She frowned at that and quickly restarted her communication system as she levitated through the air.

Takato was waiting.

**XxXXxX**

"Ah, there you are." Takato tried to say casually. LadyDevimon had been hanging around him for quite a while in her previous forms, though, so she saw the relief hidden within those words.

She smiled at him, pausing a moment to double check the data controlling her voice.

Perfect.

"Sorry for making you wait." She apologized.

"Ah…no problem." Takato said, though he seemed to be avoiding looking at her.

She made a note to ask about that later, but they'd wasted enough time.

"Is this the Chronic Layer System?"

"Yeah." He said. "It's all set up; it just needs a key, now."

He pointed towards the key scanner.

"Got it." She said, lifting the master key. She held it out to the scanner, which quickly read the barcode ring. A green light flashed after it finished scanning and the machine began to activate.

All in all, it was pretty anticlimactic. A 'window' appeared in midair that allowed them to see a forest on the other side and that was it.

The Tamer and Digimon looked at each other and shrugged before LadyDevimon grabbed Takato.

Takato briefly wondered if he should say something when LadyDevimon picked him up bridal style and rested his head on her breast. Point of fact, he was going to say something.

And then LadyDevimon flew through the gate at full speed.

When he got to the other side, he realized that he had bigger things to worry about.

Takato mentally kicked himself.

Of course! What was he thinking! 

If there had been guards on this side, then…

It stood to reason that there would be guards on the other side, right?

**XxXXxX**


End file.
